kubernetes/kops · error

reading file %v: %w

Error message

reading file %v: %w

What it means

GetCluster builds the path <clusterBasePath>/config and reads the cluster's serialized Cluster manifest; any read error (other than the name mismatch above) is wrapped as this message. The controller-side clientset is file-backed, so a missing or unreadable config file surfaces here.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kops-controller/pkg/controllerclientset/clientset.go:64

type client struct {
	vfsContext         *vfs.VFSContext
	clusterBasePath    vfs.Path
	clusterName        string
	clusterKeystore    fi.CAStore
	clusterSecretStore fi.SecretStore
}

// GetCluster reads a cluster by name
func (c *client) GetCluster(ctx context.Context, name string) (*kops.Cluster, error) {
	if name != c.clusterName {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("clientset bound to cluster %q, got cluster %q", c.clusterName, name)
	}

	p := c.clusterBasePath.Join("config")
	b, err := p.ReadFile(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("reading file %v: %w", p, err)
	}

	gvk := kops.SchemeGroupVersion.WithKind("Cluster")
	object, _, err := kopscodecs.Decode(b, &gvk)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error parsing %v: %w", p, err)
	}

	cluster, ok := object.(*kops.Cluster)
	if !ok {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unexpected kind for cluster, got %T, want kops.Cluster", object)
	}
	return cluster, nil
}

// VFSContext returns a VFSContext.
func (c *client) VFSContext() *vfs.VFSContext {
	return c.vfsContext

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Verify the cluster config file exists at the printed path (state store layout: <base>/cluster/config)
2. Check permissions and volume mounts providing the state directory
3. Confirm the cluster name and base path configuration (clusterBasePath) are correct
4. Restore/recreate the cluster config if it was deleted

// pre-check that the cluster config file exists
p := clusterBasePath.Join("config")
if _, err := os.Stat(string(p)); os.IsNotExist(err) {
	return fmt.Errorf("cluster config missing at %s", p)
}

cluster, err := clientset.GetCluster(ctx, name)
if err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "reading file") {
		// path missing/unreadable: check state store config
		return err
	}
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: p.ReadFile(ctx) fails in GetCluster — file absent, permission denied, or mount unavailable; invoked from RunGetAll/RunGetClusters via GetCluster.

Common situations: Wrong state-store/base path configuration so the cluster config file isn't where expected; cluster deleted or renamed; controller pod lost access to the mounted state directory.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to read file", EACCES, ENOENT and "could not read <path>" errors: when a program can't read a file from disk — this error's family across 49 libraries.

Related errors

• error reading cluster configuration: %v
• error reading addons file %s: %v
• error parsing %v: %w
• error loading NodeupConfig %q: %v
• error reading file %q: %v

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7d737837eb557a39. Report an issue: GitHub.