Kubectl always returns a error: yaml: mapping values are not allowed in this context

Question

Kubectl command alway returns this error yaml: line 2: mapping values are not allowed in this context. Even when i call normal version command, config command, etc. Not sure whats causing this.

tessact@tessact-sys-1:~$ kubectl version
Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"4",
GitVersion:"v1.4.4",
GitCommit:"3b417cc4ccd1b8f38ff9ec96bb50a81ca0ea9d56",
GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2016-10-21T02:48:38Z",
GoVersion:"go1.6.3", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}
error: yaml: line 2: mapping values are not allowed in this context


tessact@tessact-sys-1:~/[some path]$ kubectl create -f kubernetes_configs/frontend.yaml
error: yaml: line 2: mapping values are not allowed in this context

The only yaml file i used is

apiVersion: v1
kind: ReplicationController
metadata:
  name: frontend
  labels:
    name: frontend
spec:
  replicas: 3
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        name: frontend
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: trigger
        # Replace  with your project ID or use `make template`
        image: asia.gcr.io/trigger-backend/trigger-backend

        # This setting makes nodes pull the docker image every time before
        # starting the pod. This is useful when debugging, but should be turned
        # off in production.
        imagePullPolicy: Always
        ports:
        - containerPort: 8080


apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: frontend
  labels:
    name: frontend
spec:
  type: LoadBalancer
  ports:
  - port: 80
    targetPort: 8080
  selector:
    name: frontend

Whatever I try with kubectl it returns this error. What should I do to solve this?

> tessact@tessact-sys-1:~/developer/trigger-backend-dev/trigger-backend$
> kubectl get service error: yaml: line 2: mapping values are not
> allowed in this context

Output of :

strace kubectl version

is here

Answer 1

That the version command already throws an error indicates that there is some default YAML file that gets loaded.

You can use strace kubectl version to see what file was opened, hopefully this is done just before kubectl throws the error. I assume there is some global config that it reads (or alternatively a default file in your current directory).

It is of course sloppy programming in kubernetes not to catch such an error, and display the name of the file, and then re-raise the error.