skaffold: manifest is not being loaded when using config dependencies

Question

I've created a demo git repo with examples I'm struggling with.

I'm using skaffold dev -p local --port-forward command to get generated k8s configuration + to run service in minikube.

This config works:

apiVersion: skaffold/v4beta1
kind: Config


profiles:
  - name: local
    build:  
      artifacts:
        - context: code/
          docker:
            dockerfile: Dockerfile
          image: demo
    manifests:
        kustomize:
          paths:
            - code/kustomize #here it works

But if I change skaffold to use config dependencies like this

apiVersion: skaffold/v4beta1
kind: Config
metadata:
  name: core
requires: #this don't work
 - configs:
     - add
   path: skaffold/demo.yaml

The skaffold does not generate service in minikube + there is no port forwarding. The command skaffold render do generate the manifests.

I've isolated the question so anyone can reproduce this.

Am I missing something? Why would skaffold not generate manifest when using config dependencies?

EDIT:

skaffold version == v2.9.0

Answer 1

In your first scenario, where you only have one skaffold.yaml config file, Skaffold is able to inject a default deployer, so running a command like skaffold dev will work as expected; it will deploy your resources.

In your second scenario, using config dependencies, it will not be able to inject a default deployer, so running skaffold dev won't deploy anything. This behavior explains why you can get the rendered manifests but can not get anything deployed in your cluster.

To be able to make this work you'll need to configure a deployer in your skaffold/demo.yaml file, it will look something like this:

apiVersion: skaffold/v4beta1
kind: Config
metadata:
  name: demo

profiles:
  - name: local
    build:  
      artifacts:
        - context: code/
          docker:
            dockerfile: Dockerfile
          image: demo

    manifests:
      kustomize:
        paths:
        - code/kustomize

    deploy:
      kubectl: {} # <- explicitly defining a kubectl deployer

And your root skaffold.yaml file will look like:

apiVersion: skaffold/v4beta1
kind: Config
metadata:
  name: core
requires:
 - configs:
     - demo
   path: skaffold/demo.yaml

Hope this helps!