kubernetes/kops · error

cannot interpret value as bool

Error message

cannot interpret %q value as bool

What it means

The target field is a bool; setType uses strconv.ParseBool on the string value and this error is returned when the string is not one of 1,t,T,TRUE,true,True,0,f,F,FALSE,false,False. The offending string is quoted in the message.

Solutions

1. Use a ParseBool-accepted literal: true/false, 1/0, t/f, TRUE/FALSE, True/False.
2. Change "yes"/"no"/"on"/"off" to true/false before calling.
3. Pre-validate with strconv.ParseBool and report a friendly message to the user.

Example fix

// before
SetString(&ig, "spec.machineType", ...) // e.g. "yes" on a bool field
SetString(&ig, "spec.spot", "yes")
// after
SetString(&ig, "spec.spot", "true")

if _, err := strconv.ParseBool(val); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("value %q is not a valid Go bool (use true/false/1/0)", val)
}

func isGoBool(s string) bool {
    _, err := strconv.ParseBool(s)
    return err == nil
}

if err := SetString(&obj, path, val); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "as bool") {
        return fmt.Errorf("%q is not a bool; use true or false", val)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: SetString(&obj, "spec.someBool", "yes") or "enabled" or "1.0" — any value ParseBool rejects.

Common situations: Shell one-liners using `kops set cluster spec.X.enabled=yes`; YAML-style true/false variants like "on"/"off" that Go doesn't accept.

Related errors

• cannot interpret value as int16
• cannot interpret value as int32
• cannot interpret value as int64
• cannot interpret value as integer
• unable to parse sha

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7529775224719223. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at util/pkg/reflectutils/access.go:196

			v.SetMapIndex(reflect.ValueOf(name), valueArray)

		default:
			return fmt.Errorf("unhandled type %q", t)
		}

		return nil
	}

	var newV reflect.Value

	switch t {
	case "string":
		newV = reflect.ValueOf(newValue)

	case "bool":
		b, err := strconv.ParseBool(newValue)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("cannot interpret %q value as bool", newValue)
		}
		newV = reflect.ValueOf(b)

	case "int64", "int32", "int16", "int":
		switch t {
		case "int":
			v, err := strconv.Atoi(newValue)
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("cannot interpret %q value as integer", newValue)
			}
			newV = reflect.ValueOf(v)
		case "int16":
			v, err := strconv.ParseInt(newValue, 10, 16)
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("cannot interpret %q value as int16", newValue)
			}
			v16 := int16(v)
			newV = reflect.ValueOf(v16)

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)