kubernetes/kops · error

error launching editor: %v

Error message

error launching editor: %v

What it means

With --edit (the default), kOps launches an interactive editor (from KUBE_EDITOR/EDITOR env vars) so the user can adjust the new InstanceGroup YAML. This error is returned when the editor process itself cannot be started or exits with a failure, before kOps even attempts to parse the result.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kops/create_instancegroup.go:273

	if options.Edit {
		edit := editor.NewDefaultEditor(commandutils.EditorEnvs)

		raw, err := kopscodecs.ToVersionedYaml(ig)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		ext := "yaml"

		// launch the editor
		edited, file, err := edit.LaunchTempFile(fmt.Sprintf("%s-edit-", filepath.Base(os.Args[0])), ext, bytes.NewReader(raw))
		defer func() {
			if file != "" {
				try.RemoveFile(file)
			}
		}()
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error launching editor: %v", err)
		}

		obj, _, err := kopscodecs.Decode(edited, nil)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error parsing yaml: %v", err)
		}
		group, ok := obj.(*kopsapi.InstanceGroup)
		if !ok {
			return fmt.Errorf("unexpected object type: %T", obj)
		}

		err = validation.CrossValidateInstanceGroup(group, cluster, cloud, true).ToAggregate()
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}

		ig = group
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Set KUBE_EDITOR or EDITOR to an installed editor (e.g. `export EDITOR=vim` or `EDITOR='code --wait'`)
2. Use `--edit=false` to skip interactive editing when automating
3. Ensure the command runs in an interactive TTY session
4. Check the wrapped error (%v) for the exact exec failure (binary not found vs exit status)

Example fix

// before
kops create instancegroup ig  # EDITOR=/usr/bin/nope
// after
export EDITOR=vim  # or: kops create instancegroup ig --edit=false

command -v "${KUBE_EDITOR:-${EDITOR}}" >/dev/null 2>&1 || export EDITOR=vim
tty -s || EDIT-less=true  # skip --edit when non-interactive

err := RunCreateInstanceGroup(...)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error launching editor") {
	// retry with options.Edit = false or fix EDITOR and rerun
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `kops create instancegroup` in an environment where the editor cannot launch: EDITOR/KUBE_EDITOR set to a nonexistent binary, no TTY available (non-interactive CI shell), or the editor exiting non-zero (user aborts in vim with :cq, or the editor crashes).

Common situations: CI/automation invoking the command without a terminal; EDITOR pointing to an uninstalled program; editor saving and exiting nonzero; docker exec or SSH sessions without proper TERM/TTY.

Related errors

• error launching editor: %v
• Edit cancelled: no valid changes were saved.
• Error too many '=' (%d) in %s
• at least one channel URL is required
• building menu for %q: %w

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/06054be1418d86f8. Report an issue: GitHub.