What causes "no snapshots given for removal" in k3s-io/k3s?

Pass one or more snapshot names positionally: k3s etcd-snapshot delete on-demand-12345

no snapshots given for removal

Error message

no snapshots given for removal

What it means

The `k3s etcd-snapshot delete` subcommand takes snapshot names as positional arguments. deleteSnapshot checks app.Args(); with zero arguments there is nothing to address the delete operation to, so it fails before contacting etcd. The CLI has no implicit delete-all, by design, to prevent accidental snapshot loss.

Source

Thrown at pkg/cli/etcdsnapshot/etcd_snapshot.go:158

	for _, name := range resp.Created {
		logrus.Infof("Snapshot %s saved.", name)
	}

	return nil
}

func Delete(app *cli.Context) error {
	if err := cmds.InitLogging(); err != nil {
		return err
	}
	return deleteSnapshot(app, &cmds.ServerConfig)
}

func deleteSnapshot(app *cli.Context, cfg *cmds.Server) error {
	snapshots := app.Args()
	if snapshots.Len() == 0 {
		return errors.New("no snapshots given for removal")
	}

	sr, info, err := commandSetup(app, cfg)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	sr.Operation = etcd.SnapshotOperationDelete
	sr.Name = snapshots.Slice()

	b, err := json.Marshal(sr)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	r, err := info.Post("/db/snapshot", b, clientaccess.WithTimeout(timeout))
	if err != nil {
		return wrapServerError(err)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 6ba341e396)

Solutions

Pass one or more snapshot names positionally: k3s etcd-snapshot delete on-demand-12345
List available names first with k3s etcd-snapshot list to copy the exact name
To reduce count by policy, use retention/prune options on the server rather than a bare delete

Example fix

# before
k3s etcd-snapshot delete  # -> no snapshots given for removal

# after
k3s etcd-snapshot list
k3s etcd-snapshot delete etcd-snapshot-1699999999 on-demand-abc123

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if app.Args().Len() == 0 {
    return errors.New("etcd-snapshot delete requires one or more snapshot names; run `k3s etcd-snapshot list` first")
}

Type guard

func hasPositionalArgs(args []string) bool { return len(args) > 0 }

Prevention

Wrap delete calls: always `k3s etcd-snapshot list` then pass explicit names
Guard scripts: fail if the names array is empty instead of calling delete
Use shellcheck to catch `k3s etcd-snapshot delete $MAYBE_EMPTY` patterns

When it happens

Trigger: Running `k3s etcd-snapshot delete` with no positional names; passing names as a flag (e.g. --name) instead of positional args so Args() stays empty.

Common situations: Scripts ported from other etcd tooling; users expecting `delete` with --prune semantics to need no target; shell quoting that expands an empty variable into no arguments.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of k3s-io/k3s@6ba341e396 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3df0d868f0b8bd59. Report an issue: GitHub.