kubernetes/kubernetes · error

%q does not take any arguments, got %q

Error message

%q does not take any arguments, got %q

What it means

Emitted by the cobra Args validator on the kube-controller-manager command. Like kube-apiserver, kube-controller-manager is flag-only and rejects any positional argument; the validator fails on the first non-empty token and reports the full args slice.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kube-controller-manager/app/controllermanager.go:167

			if err != nil {
				return err
			}

			// add feature enablement metrics
			fg := s.ComponentGlobalsRegistry.FeatureGateFor(basecompatibility.DefaultKubeComponent)
			fg.(featuregate.MutableFeatureGate).AddMetrics()
			// add component version metrics
			s.ComponentGlobalsRegistry.AddMetrics()

			if utilfeature.DefaultFeatureGate.Enabled(cmfeatures.ControllerManagerReleaseLeaderElectionLockOnExit) {
				ctx = server.SetupSignalContext()
			}
			return Run(ctx, c.Complete())
		},
		Args: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
			for _, arg := range args {
				if len(arg) > 0 {
					return fmt.Errorf("%q does not take any arguments, got %q", cmd.CommandPath(), args)
				}
			}
			return nil
		},
	}

	fs := cmd.Flags()
	namedFlagSets := s.Flags(KnownControllers(), ControllersDisabledByDefault(), ControllerAliases())
	s.ParsedFlags = &namedFlagSets
	verflag.AddFlags(namedFlagSets.FlagSet("global"))
	globalflag.AddGlobalFlags(namedFlagSets.FlagSet("global"), cmd.Name(), logs.SkipLoggingConfigurationFlags())
	for _, f := range namedFlagSets.FlagSets {
		fs.AddFlagSet(f)
	}

	cols, _, _ := term.TerminalSize(cmd.OutOrStdout())
	cliflag.SetUsageAndHelpFunc(cmd, namedFlagSets, cols)

View on GitHub (pinned to b882c60b40)

Solutions

1. Remove all positional arguments; kube-controller-manager only accepts --flag=value.
2. Audit the systemd ExecStart / container command for stray tokens.
3. Use --controllers flags to select controllers instead of positional names.

Example fix

// before
kube-controller-manager --leader-elect=true run
// after
kube-controller-manager --leader-elect=true

func validateArgs(binary string, args []string) error {
    for _, a := range args {
        if a != "" { return fmt.Errorf("%s takes no positional args, got %v", binary, args) }
    }
    return nil
}

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking `kube-controller-manager <token>` where <token> is not a flag, e.g. `kube-controller-manager --leader-elect run`.

Common situations: Leftover subcommand from hyperkube-era invocation; a wrapper appending a node name or profile name as a positional arg.

Related errors

• %q does not take any arguments, got %q
• duration time must be greater than one second as set via com
• concurrent-cron-job-syncs must be greater than 0, but got %d
• %q: %v
• cannot specify --cluster-signing-{cert,key}-file and other -

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kubernetes@b882c60b40 (2026-08-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0c9d91e362129719. Report an issue: GitHub.