GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

tempdir: %w

Error message

tempdir: %w

What it means

Wraps os.MkdirTemp failure when packageChart creates a temporary directory to hold the helm-packaged .tgz chart. Without a writable temp dir, the chart cannot be packaged locally before install/upgrade.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/deploy/helm/helm.go:672

				return err
			}
			return nil
		}, opts)

	olog.Entry(ctx).Debug(b.String())

	return b.Bytes(), err
}

// packageChart packages the chart and returns the path to the resulting chart archive
func (h *Deployer) packageChart(ctx context.Context, r latest.HelmRelease) (string, error) {
	// Allow a test to sneak a predictable path in
	tmpDir := h.pkgTmpDir

	if tmpDir == "" {
		t, err := os.MkdirTemp("", "skaffold-helm")
		if err != nil {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("tempdir: %w", err)
		}
		tmpDir = t
	}

	args := []string{"package", r.ChartPath, "--destination", tmpDir}

	if r.Packaged.Version != "" {
		v, err := util.ExpandEnvTemplate(r.Packaged.Version, nil)
		if err != nil {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("packaged.version template: %w", err)
		}
		args = append(args, "--version", v)
	}

	if r.Packaged.AppVersion != "" {
		av, err := util.ExpandEnvTemplate(r.Packaged.AppVersion, nil)
		if err != nil {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("packaged.appVersion template: %w", err)

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Ensure TMPDIR (or /tmp) exists and is writable: `mktemp -d` to test
2. Free disk space if the volume is full
3. Override h.pkgTmpDir (test hook) to a writable directory

Example fix

// before
ENV TMPDIR=/nonexistent
skaffold run
// after
ENV TMPDIR=/tmp
skaffold run

dir := os.Getenv("TMPDIR")
if dir == "" { dir = "/tmp" }
fi, err := os.Stat(dir)
if err != nil || !fi.IsDir() { return fmt.Errorf("TMPDIR %s missing", dir) }
if err := unix.Access(dir, unix.W_OK); err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("TMPDIR %s not writable", dir) }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Deploy with `helm` releases that require packaging (e.g. local chartPath) when TMPDIR is unwritable, full, or points to a nonexistent path.

Common situations: Containers with read-only /tmp, disk quota exceeded, TMPDIR exported to a missing directory in CI.

Related errors

• failed to create the tmp directory: %w
• cannot create temp file: %w
• failed to create the tmp directory: %w
• strings.Join(errMsgs, "\n") (joined helm cleanup error messa
• Failed to install Helm plugin

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f1172bf08de4be83. Report an issue: GitHub.