GoogleContainerTools/skaffold · error

writing config file: %w

Error message

writing config file: %w

What it means

marshalConfigSetForFile finishes by writing the re-marshaled YAML back to disk via WriteFileFunc. If that write fails, "writing config file: %w" wraps the underlying OS error. The modification succeeded in memory but could not be persisted.

Source

Thrown at pkg/skaffold/inspect/helper.go:86

			break
		}
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("unable to parse YAML: %w", err)
		}
		// parsed content is a document so the `Content` slice has exactly one element
		sl = append(sl, parsed.Content[0])
	}

	for i, cfg := range cfgs {
		sl[cfg.SourceIndex] = cfgs[i].SkaffoldConfig
	}

	newCfgs, err := yaml.MarshalWithSeparator(sl)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("marshaling new configs: %w", err)
	}
	if err := WriteFileFunc(filename, newCfgs); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("writing config file: %w", err)
	}
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to a1189de023)

Solutions

1. Check permissions on the file and fix them: `chmod u+w skaffold.yaml` or run as the file owner.
2. Verify disk space (`df -h`) and free space if the disk is full.
3. Confirm you are pointing --filename at a writable path, not a read-only mount or installed artifact.

Example fix

// before
skaffold inspect modify-port-forward-resources --filename /ro/skaffold.yaml
// after
chmod u+w skaffold.yaml && skaffold inspect modify-port-forward-resources --filename skaffold.yaml

fi, err := os.Stat(filename)
if err != nil { return err }
if fi.Mode().Perm()&0200 == 0 {
    return fmt.Errorf("%s is not writable", filename)
}

if err := inspectModify(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "writing config file") {
        // check permissions/disk and retry with a writable path
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running a `skaffold inspect` modify command where the target file is read-only, the directory doesn't exist, disk is full, or permission is denied.

Common situations: Read-only mounted filesystem or container, file owned by another user, immutable file, or out of disk space while updating skaffold.yaml.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Permission denied" / "Failed to write" file errors: why a library can't write its files to disk (EACCES, EPERM, ENOSPC) and how to fix them — this error's family across 43 libraries.

Related errors

• writing %q to %q: %w
• reading .dockerignore: %w
• walking workspace: %w
• unable to stat file %q: %w
• failed to create directory: %v

AI-assisted analysis of GoogleContainerTools/skaffold@a1189de023 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3ee5a0a56f46ca12. Report an issue: GitHub.