kubernetes/kops · error

error removing file %s: %w

Error message

error removing file %s: %w

What it means

Returned by MemFSPath.RemoveAll when deleting one of the paths gathered from ReadTree fails. The inner Remove on an in-memory path virtually never errors, so this guard fires only if the tree contains a path whose removal misbehaves — effectively an internal-consistency check while purging a memfs subtree.

Source

Thrown at util/pkg/vfs/memfs.go:200

func (p *MemFSPath) String() string {
	return p.Path()
}

func (p *MemFSPath) Remove(ctx context.Context) error {
	p.contents = nil
	return nil
}

func (p *MemFSPath) RemoveAll(ctx context.Context) error {
	tree, err := p.ReadTree(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	for _, filePath := range tree {
		err := filePath.Remove(ctx)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error removing file %s: %w", filePath, err)
		}
	}

	return nil
}

func (p *MemFSPath) RemoveAllVersions(ctx context.Context) error {
	return p.Remove(ctx)
}

func (p *MemFSPath) Location() string {
	return p.location
}

func (p *MemFSPath) IsPublic() (bool, error) {
	if p.acl == nil {
		return false, nil
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped error and offending path (%s/%w) to see which child failed and why
2. Fix the ACL on the failing child path so Remove passes its permission check
3. If idempotent cleanup is desired, tolerate not-exist errors: iterate the tree yourself and ignore vfs.ErrNotExist per child

Example fix

// before
tree, _ := dir.ReadTree(ctx)
for _, p := range tree { p.Remove(ctx) } // one failure aborts
// after
for _, p := range tree {
    if err := p.Remove(ctx); err != nil && !os.IsNotExist(err) {
        return fmt.Errorf("error removing file %s: %w", p, err)
    }
}

null

null

if err := dir.RemoveAll(ctx); err != nil {
    var pe *pathError
    klog.Warningf("partial RemoveAll: %v", err) // err names offending file and cause
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling RemoveAll on a memfs directory where a child path's Remove fails (e.g. permission denied by the path's ACL during the ACL check performed by Remove).

Common situations: In-memory VFS used in tests/terraform rendering where an ACL restricts deletion of some descendant; partially deleted trees left behind after this error.

Related errors

• memfs path not recognized: %q
• memfs context not initialized
• error reading data: %v
• expected acl to be S3Acl, was %T
• reading data: %v

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ef117dad25b24bf3. Report an issue: GitHub.