kubernetes/kops · error

downloading

Error message

downloading %q: %w

What it means

In generatefileassets (a code-generation tool that turns remote SHA256SUMS files into embedded YAML manifests), run() fetches the hash file with http.Get. This error wraps any transport-level failure: DNS resolution, TCP connect, TLS, timeouts, or an invalid URL scheme. It does not cover HTTP error statuses (see 806).

Solutions

1. Verify the URL (curl the hashFileURL printed in the error) and fix -base/-prefix/-sums flags
2. Include the scheme in -sums, e.g. -sums https://storage.googleapis.com/.../SHA256SUMS
3. Check network/proxy: set HTTPS_PROXY or run from a machine with internet access
4. Retry if transient (DNS blip, rate limit); the tool does no retries itself

Example fix

// before
main -base storage.googleapis.com/kops-ci/bin/ -prefix 1.28.0/
// after (note scheme)
main -base https://storage.googleapis.com/kops-ci/bin/ -prefix 1.28.0/

u, err := url.Parse(hashFileURL)
if err != nil || (u.Scheme != "http" && u.Scheme != "https") || u.Host == "" {
	return fmt.Errorf("invalid hash file URL: %q", hashFileURL)
}

resp, err := http.Get(hashFileURL)
if err != nil {
	var netErr net.Error
	if errors.As(err, &netErr) && netErr.Timeout() {
		// retry with backoff
	}
	return fmt.Errorf("downloading %q: %w", hashFileURL, err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running the tool with a -base/-prefix/-sums combination producing a URL that fails http.Get — unreachable host, no network, DNS failure, offline CI, or malformed URL (e.g. missing scheme when -sums is given a bare hostname).

Common situations: CI runner without internet access; typo'd or stale filestore base; corporate proxy/firewall blocking storage.googleapis.com; passing -sums without http(s):// prefix.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Something went wrong' / 'Request failed (500)' / 'HTTP error! status: 404' — what failed HTTP requests actually mean and how to find the real cause — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• droplet metadata returned non-200 status code
• error fetching
• error reading response for
• error reading tag file
• fetching metadata from

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/12b7965b1a6663f3. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at pkg/assets/assetdata/tools/cmd/generatefileassets/main.go:58

	filestoreBase := ""
	prefix := ""
	hashFileURL := ""
	var exclude globList

	flag.StringVar(&filestoreBase, "base", filestoreBase, "base directory")
	flag.StringVar(&prefix, "prefix", prefix, "prefix to fetch")
	flag.StringVar(&hashFileURL, "sums", hashFileURL, "prefix to fetch")
	flag.Var(&exclude, "exclude", "path-globs to exclude from output")

	flag.Parse()

	if hashFileURL == "" {
		hashFileURL = filestoreBase + prefix + "SHA256SUMS"
	}

	httpResponse, err := http.Get(hashFileURL)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("downloading %q: %w", hashFileURL, err)
	}
	if httpResponse.StatusCode != 200 {
		return fmt.Errorf("unexpected status getting %q: %v", hashFileURL, httpResponse.Status)
	}
	defer httpResponse.Body.Close()

	b, err := io.ReadAll(httpResponse.Body)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("reading body %q: %w", hashFileURL, err)
	}

	m := &manifest{}
	for _, line := range strings.Split(string(b), "\n") {
		line = strings.TrimSpace(line)
		if line == "" {
			continue
		}
		if line == "-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----" {

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)