kubernetes/kops · error

error listing namespaces: %v

Error message

error listing namespaces: %v

What it means

getChannelVersions lists all namespaces to collect installed channel versions. If the List call fails, 'error listing namespaces: %v' is returned (%v, not wrapped) and the apply aborts. This is a cluster API access failure.

Source

Thrown at channels/pkg/cmd/apply_channel.go:316

	var updates []*channels.AddonUpdate
	var needUpdates []*channels.Addon
	for _, addon := range menu.Addons {
		update, err := addon.GetRequiredUpdates(ctx, k8sClient, cmClient, channelVersions[addon.GetNamespace()+":"+addon.Name])
		if err != nil {
			return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("error checking for required update: %v", err)
		}
		if update != nil {
			updates = append(updates, update)
			needUpdates = append(needUpdates, addon)
		}
	}
	return updates, needUpdates, nil
}

func getChannelVersions(ctx context.Context, k8sClient kubernetes.Interface) (map[string]*channels.ChannelVersion, error) {
	namespaces, err := k8sClient.CoreV1().Namespaces().List(ctx, metav1.ListOptions{})
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error listing namespaces: %v", err)
	}

	channelVersions := make(map[string]*channels.ChannelVersion)
	for i := range namespaces.Items {
		ns := &namespaces.Items[i]
		addons := channels.FindChannelVersions(ns)
		for name, version := range addons {
			channelVersions[ns.Name+":"+name] = version
		}
	}
	return channelVersions, nil
}

func buildMenu(vfsContext *vfs.VFSContext, kubernetesVersion semver.Version, channelLocation string) (*channels.AddonMenu, error) {
	menu := channels.NewAddonMenu()

	location, err := url.Parse(channelLocation)
	if err != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Verify with `kubectl get namespaces` and fix kubeconfig/credentials
2. Grant cluster-scoped list permission on namespaces via RBAC
3. Restore network connectivity/VPN to the API server
4. Re-run the apply after access is fixed

Example fix

// before
kops apply channel ...  # error listing namespaces
// after
kops export kubecfg --name mycluster
kubectl auth can-i list namespaces  # expect yes
kops apply channel ...

_, err := k8sClient.CoreV1().Namespaces().List(ctx, metav1.ListOptions{Limit: 1})
if err != nil {
	return fmt.Errorf("namespace list preflight failed, fix kubeconfig/RBAC: %w", err)
}

namespaces, err := k8sClient.CoreV1().Namespaces().List(ctx, metav1.ListOptions{})
if err != nil {
	if apierrors.IsForbidden(err) {
		return fmt.Errorf("RBAC denied listing namespaces; grant cluster-scoped list permission")
	}
	return fmt.Errorf("transient API failure: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: CoreV1().Namespaces().List errors during applyMenu or tests: unreachable API server, bad/absent kubeconfig, expired tokens, RBAC denial on namespaces.

Common situations: Running off-cluster without `kops export kubecfg`, VPN down, expired cloud IAM session, hardened clusters restricting namespace enumeration.

Related errors

• cannot fetch channel versions from namespaces: %w
• error applying annotation to record addon installation: %v
• updating Role Assignment is not yet implemented
• error adding needs-update label: %v
• error querying namespace %q: %v

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/13b241fb033de14a. Report an issue: GitHub.