Error: json: cannot unmarshal string into Go struct field Kustomization.patches of type types.Patch

[luisdavim]

This was working file with v3.0.0, I've updated to v3.0.3 and I'm getting the error:

Error: json: cannot unmarshal string into Go struct field Kustomization.patches of type types.Patch

This is the kustomization file:

# Adds namespace to all resources.
namespace: marquis-system

# Value of this field is prepended to the
# names of all resources, e.g. a deployment named
# "wordpress" becomes "alices-wordpress".
# Note that it should also match with the prefix (text before '-') of the namespace
# field above.
namePrefix: marquis-

# Labels to add to all resources and selectors.
#commonLabels:
#  someName: someValue

# Each entry in this list must resolve to an existing
# resource definition in YAML.  These are the resource
# files that kustomize reads, modifies and emits as a
# YAML string, with resources separated by document
# markers ("---").
resources:
- ./rbac/rbac_role.yaml
- ./rbac/rbac_role_binding.yaml
- ./manager/manager.yaml
- ./rbac/auth_proxy_service.yaml
- ./rbac/auth_proxy_role.yaml
- ./rbac/auth_proxy_role_binding.yaml

patches:
- manager_image_patch.yaml
  # Protect the /metrics endpoint by putting it behind auth.
  # Only one of manager_auth_proxy_patch.yaml and
  # manager_prometheus_metrics_patch.yaml should be enabled.
- manager_auth_proxy_patch.yaml
  # If you want your controller-manager to expose the /metrics
  # endpoint w/o any authn/z, uncomment the following line and
  # comment manager_auth_proxy_patch.yaml.
  # Only one of manager_auth_proxy_patch.yaml and
  # manager_prometheus_metrics_patch.yaml should be enabled.
#- manager_prometheus_metrics_patch.yaml

[jbrette]

"patches:" was obsolete. You are supposed to use "patchesStrategicMerge:" instead.

Since "patches:" is used for more extended patching.

[luisdavim]

thanks, I guess that was it. I think the readme should be updated.

[functicons]

+1, I hit the same error. My yaml files were generated by kubebuilder, they worked with Kustomize v2, but upgrading Kustomize to v3.0.3 breaks it.

[jbrette]

Interesting...Was looking at the log. patches has been deprecated last year v1.0.9.

I guess we will have to check if kubebuilder needs to be updated. Meanwhile the easiest workaround is
replaced patches: by patchesStrategicMerge:

[jbrette]

@functicons Created a PR in kubebuilder

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[jmichalek132]

Hi since patches is obsolete, this example should be removed or updated.

[leoskyrocker]

I think "patches" means something else - not obsolete as of today.
It is used for patching multiple objects at once via the same patch file.

[jmichalek132]

Okay so the use of "patches" above is not working because it's missing target? And with target specified it's still working/valid use?

[jgriff]

I think the problem is kubectl uses a much older version of kustomize. It appears the "multiple patching" support was added in v3.1.0 of kustomize (based on when examples/patchMultipleObjects.md was added in this commit).

Works in kustomize 3.5.4

❯ kustomize version
{Version:3.5.4 GitCommit:3af514fa9f85430f0c1557c4a0291e62112ab026 BuildDate:2020-01-17T14:23:25+00:00 GoOs:darwin GoArch:amd64}

overlays/my-overlay/kustomization.yaml

patches:
  - patch: |
      apiVersion: apps/v1
      kind: Deployment
      metadata:
        name: does-not-matter
      spec:
        template:
          spec:
            priorityClassName: my-priority-class
    target:
      kind: Deployment

This works:

kustomize build overlays/my-overlay

But not in kubectl (1.18) with kustomize (2.0.3)

❯ kubectl version
Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"18", GitVersion:"v1.18.1", GitCommit:"7879fc12a63337efff607952a323df90cdc7a335", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2020-04-10T21:53:51Z", GoVersion:"go1.14.2", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"darwin/amd64"}

Currently the only way to know which version of kustomize is used in kubectl is to consult the README, which currently states its using v2.0.3.

So this does not work:

❯ kubectl kustomize overlays/my-overlay
Error: AccumulateTarget: couldn't make target for {redacted}: cannot unmarshal object into Go struct field Kustomization.patchesStrategicMerge of type patch.StrategicMerge

[leoskyrocker]

Yep that’s right

[manishtanwar19]

As opposed to pointed out in other comments, patches should be used only, as patchesStrategicMerge field was deprecated in v5.0.0.

The change that worked for me while using patches: only, was:

 patches:
- ./patch-deployment.yaml
- ./patch-hpa.yaml

 patches:
- path: ./patch-deployment.yaml
- path: ./patch-hpa.yaml

Adding path: in patches.

[Stef16Robbe]

As opposed to pointed out in other comments, patches should be used only, as patchesStrategicMerge field was deprecated in v5.0.0.

The change that worked for me while using patches: only, was:

 patches:
- ./patch-deployment.yaml
- ./patch-hpa.yaml

 patches:
- path: ./patch-deployment.yaml
- path: ./patch-hpa.yaml

Adding path: in patches.

This can be automatically done by running kustomize edit fix.

[CameronHudson8]

I had loads of kustomization.yaml files to convert, and this is what I used to find and update all of them.

grep -rl 'patchesStrategicMerge' \
    | grep -v '\.git' \
    | xargs -I'{}' yq -i '.patches = (.patchesStrategicMerge | map({ "path": . })) | del(.patchesStrategicMerge)' {}

[martinwunderlich-celonis]

Just came across this issue and had the same problem. It was due to a very complex env var value with several levels of escaping. I was able to fix by moving this env var from the literals in the configMapGenerator to an external env file.