kubernetes/kops · error

unable to parse sha: %q, %v

Error message

unable to parse sha: %q, %v

What it means

The expected sha string is parsed via hashing.FromString(strings.TrimSpace(sha)); if the hash string cannot be parsed into a known hashing object (e.g. it is not valid hex of length 40/64, or an unrecognized algorithm prefix), the task fails with 'unable to parse sha: <sha>, <reason>'.

Source

Thrown at pkg/assets/assetcopy/copyfile.go:140

	uploadVFS, err := vfsContext.BuildVfsPath(objectStore)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error building path %q: %v", objectStore, err)
	}

	shaExtension, err := fileExtensionForSHA(sha)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	shaTarget := objectStore + shaExtension
	shaVFS, err := vfsContext.BuildVfsPath(shaTarget)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error building path %q: %v", shaTarget, err)
	}

	shaHash, err := hashing.FromString(strings.TrimSpace(sha))
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to parse sha: %q, %v", sha, err)
	}

	in := bytes.NewReader(data)
	dataHash, err := shaHash.Algorithm.Hash(in)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to hash file %q downloaded: %v", source, err)
	}

	if !shaHash.Equal(dataHash) {
		return fmt.Errorf("the sha value in %q does not match %q calculated value %q", shaTarget, source, dataHash.String())
	}

	klog.Infof("uploading %q to %q", source, objectStore)
	if err := writeFile(ctx, cluster, uploadVFS, data); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	b := []byte(shaHash.Hex())

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Inspect the sha printed in the error for non-hex characters.
2. Regenerate the correct sha1/sha256 of the source file (shasum / openssl dgst).
3. Fix the source checksum file or the cluster spec's sha value.
4. Re-run `kops get assets --copy`.

Example fix

// before
zzzz6c35c94fcfb415dbe95f408b9ce91ee846ed  file.tar.gz   # not hex
// after
2aae6c35c94fcfb415dbe95f408b9ce91ee846ed  file.tar.gz

sha := strings.TrimSpace(expectedSHA)
if _, err := hex.DecodeString(sha); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("sha must be hex: %v", err)
}
if len(sha) != 40 && len(sha) != 64 {
    return fmt.Errorf("sha must be 40 or 64 hex chars, got %d", len(sha))
}

When it happens

Trigger: FileAsset.SHAValue contains characters that are not valid hex, or a hash in a format hashing.FromString does not recognize (lengths already validated as 40/64 by fileExtensionForSHA, so this catches non-hex garbage of those lengths).

Common situations: A hand-edited checksum file or asset spec with placeholder text ('<sha256>') padded/truncated to pass length checks; a corrupted checksum fetched from a broken mirror.

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• unhandled sha length for %q
• unable to hash file %q downloaded: %v
• %s: %v
• not all assets copied successfully
• unable to transfer %q to %q: %v

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f9df1b9c59b83112. Report an issue: GitHub.