ahmetb/kubectx · error

file %d: %w

Error message

file %d: %w

What it means

contextNodeWithFileIndex wraps an error from contextsNodeOf(&k.files[i]) as "file %d: %w" when parsing the contexts node of multi-file kubeconfig number i fails. Each failing file's error is collected in fileErrors and later surfaced in the aggregate not-found error, so one corrupt file doesn't hide which file is broken.

Source

Thrown at internal/kubeconfig/contexts.go:47

	}
	if contexts == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("\"contexts\" entry is nil")
	} else if contexts.YNode().Kind != yaml.SequenceNode {
		return nil, errors.New("\"contexts\" is not a sequence node")
	}
	return contexts, nil
}

// contextNodeWithFileIndex searches for a context by name across all files.
// Returns the context node and the index of the file that contains it.
// Files without a valid "contexts" sequence are skipped, but if errors occur
// during lookup they are included in the final error message.
func (k *Kubeconfig) contextNodeWithFileIndex(name string) (*yaml.RNode, int, error) {
	var fileErrors []error
	for i := range k.files {
		contexts, err := contextsNodeOf(&k.files[i])
		if err != nil {
			fileErrors = append(fileErrors, fmt.Errorf("file %d: %w", i, err))
			continue
		}
		context, err := contexts.Pipe(yaml.Lookup("[name=" + name + "]"))
		if err != nil {
			fileErrors = append(fileErrors, fmt.Errorf("file %d lookup: %w", i, err))
			continue
		}
		if context != nil {
			return context, i, nil
		}
	}
	if len(fileErrors) > 0 {
		return nil, -1, fmt.Errorf("context with name %q not found (errors in files: %w)",
			name, errors.Join(fileErrors...))
	}
	return nil, -1, fmt.Errorf("context with name %q not found", name)
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 12ad6fb22e)

Solutions

1. Identify the failing file from the index in the final error message and run kubectl config view --kubeconfig <file> on it.
2. Fix the YAML/syntax or add a valid 'contexts' section to that file.
3. Remove the broken file from the KUBECONFIG list if it is no longer needed.
4. Restore the file from backup or regenerate it via your cloud provider CLI.

Example fix

// KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config:~/.kube/extra (extra is corrupt)
// before
KUBECONFIG="$HOME/.kube/config:$HOME/.kube/extra" kubens ns delete old-ctx
// after: repair or drop the bad file
KUBECONFIG="$HOME/.kube/config" kubens ns delete old-ctx

// Shell: validate every file in KUBECONFIG before multi-file operations
IFS=':' read -ra files <<< "${KUBECONFIG:-$HOME/.kube/config}"
for f in "${files[@]}"; do
	kubectl config view --kubeconfig "$f" --raw > /dev/null || { echo "invalid kubeconfig: $f"; exit 1; }
done

if err := kc.DeleteContextEntry(name); err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "errors in files:") {
		// parse embedded "file N: ..." details to repair the corrupt file
		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "some kubeconfig files failed to parse: %v\n", err)
	}
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Any lookup path (DeleteContextEntry, ModifyContextName, contextNode -> contextNodeWithFileIndex) iterating k.files where file i fails to yield its contexts node: malformed YAML, missing 'contexts' top-level key handled as an error, or schema violation in that specific file.

Common situations: KUBECONFIG lists multiple files and one is hand-edited with broken YAML or lacks a contexts section; a partial merge produced an invalid file; older tool wrote an incompatible format.

Related errors

• kubeconfig error: %w
• kubeconfig error: %w
• kubeconfig error: %w
• file %d lookup: %w
• context with name %q not found (errors in files: %w)

AI-assisted analysis of ahmetb/kubectx@12ad6fb22e (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a2bb559bd5795426. Report an issue: GitHub.