kubernetes/kops · error

error reading file %q: %v

Error message

error reading file %q: %v

What it means

`kops create -f` reads each input file via vfsContext.ReadFile (local path or URL). If the file cannot be read (missing file, bad URL, permission denied), the error is wrapped as "error reading file %q: %v".

Source

Thrown at cmd/kops/create.go:121

	clusterName := ""
	// var cSpec = false
	var sb bytes.Buffer
	fmt.Fprintf(&sb, "\n")

	var addons kubemanifest.ObjectList
	var clusters []*kopsapi.Cluster

	for _, f := range c.Filenames {
		var contents []byte
		if f == "-" {
			contents, err = ConsumeStdin()
			if err != nil {
				return err
			}
		} else {
			contents, err = vfsContext.ReadFile(f)
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("error reading file %q: %v", f, err)
			}
		}
		// TODO: this does not support a JSON array
		sections := text.SplitContentToSections(contents)
		for _, section := range sections {
			o, gvk, err := kopscodecs.Decode(section, nil)
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("error parsing file %q: %v", f, err)
			}

			switch v := o.(type) {
			case *kopsapi.Cluster:
				cloud, err := cloudup.BuildCloud(v)
				if err != nil {
					return err
				}

				// Adding a PerformAssignments() call here as the user might be trying to use

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Verify the file path/URL is correct and the file exists (ls / curl the path)
2. Run from the directory containing the manifest or use an absolute path
3. Check file read permissions; add cloud credentials if using vfs URLs (s3://, gs://)
4. If passing a directory, list individual files instead

Example fix

// before
kops create -f ./cluser.yaml
// after
kops create -f ./cluster.yaml

f := "./cluster.yaml"
if _, err := os.Stat(f); err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("input file %q not readable: %v", f, err)
}

if err := runCreate(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error reading file") {
        // surface path & cwd to the user before retrying
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `kops create -f <path>` where the path does not exist, is misspelled, is unreadable (permissions), or an http(s)/s3 URL fails to fetch.

Common situations: Typos in the -f argument, running from the wrong working directory, forgetting the file is on a remote location not reachable without cloud credentials, or reading a directory instead of a file.

Understand the failure class

Background: "File not found" and ENOENT errors: why libraries can't find a file that should exist — this error's family across 50 libraries.

Related errors

• error reading SSH key file %q: %v
• error reading SSH public key files %q: %v
• error reading user provided cert %q: %v
• reading Cilium IPSec config %v: %v
• unable to open file: %s, error: %v

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/61ab83cafb6109c1. Report an issue: GitHub.