Error converting YAML to JSON could not find expected ':' #2004

Rurouni · 2017-02-21T16:21:52Z

I have just run into very curious bug with (.Files.Glob "configOverrides/*").AsConfig
Suddenly one of my services charts started to fail on helm upgrade with obscure

Error: UPGRADE FAILED: YAML parse error on web/templates/config.yaml: error converting YAML to JSON: yaml: line 12: could not find expected ':'

But the weird thing was that other almost identical chart was succeeding.
Both of them have pretty standard

kind: ConfigMap
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: {{.Chart.Name}}
  labels:
    app: {{.Values.Application}}
    release: "{{.Release.Name}}"
    component: {{.Chart.Name}}
    version: "{{.Chart.Version}}"
data:
  {{ (.Files.Glob "configOverrides/*").AsConfig | indent 2 }}

both of them incude appconfig.json file that is valid json and encoded with UTF-8 without BOM
and the only difference in appconfig.json file that I was able to find was one "space" in it.
After some testing: Even having config file as simple as

{<LF>
  "x": "x"<LF>
}

is failing with error above but as soon as I add space at the end of if

{<LF>
  "x": "x" <LF>
}

it works fine...
also it works fine if config has no space but <CRLF> instead of <LF>

Env: Helm version 2.2 running in ubuntu 16.04 based docker container

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

technosophos · 2017-02-21T20:08:19Z

That is a peculiar bug. With the problematic JSON, have you run it through a JSON linter just to be sure there isn't some hidden character causing a problem? Otherwise, it sounds like we might have an error in the upstream YAML parser.

Rurouni · 2017-02-23T16:54:58Z

It worked fine in online linters I tried. I thought initially that it was related to BOM, but both files(working and not working) did not have it. I have attached minimal chart that is causing it for me:
chart.zip

running
helm upgrade dev-seed-worker /app/bin/worker/kube --install --debug --namespace seed-dev --dry-run
results in

Created tunnel using local port: '37337'
SERVER: "localhost:37337"
Release "dev-seed-worker" does not exist. Installing it now.
CHART PATH: /app/bin/worker/kube
Error: YAML parse error on worker/templates/config.yaml: error converting YAML to JSON: yaml: line 12: could not find expected ':'

---
# Source: worker/templates/config.yaml
kind: ConfigMap
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: worker
  labels:
    app: seed
    release: "dev-seed-worker"
    component: worker
    version: "master_20170221.1_1"
data:
    appsettings.json: |
    {
      "x":"x"
    }

if you add space it seems to produce completely different result

Created tunnel using local port: '37533'
SERVER: "localhost:37533"
Release "dev-seed-worker" does not exist. Installing it now.
CHART PATH: /app/bin/worker/kube
NAME:   dev-seed-worker
REVISION: 1
RELEASED: Thu Feb 23 16:52:45 2017
CHART: worker-master_20170221.1_1
USER-SUPPLIED VALUES:
{}

COMPUTED VALUES:
Application: seed

HOOKS:
MANIFEST:

---
# Source: worker/templates/config.yaml
kind: ConfigMap
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: worker
  labels:
    app: seed
    release: "dev-seed-worker"
    component: worker
    version: "master_20170221.1_1"
data:
    appsettings.json: "{\n  \"x\":\"x\"\n} \n"

thomastaylor312 · 2017-04-15T19:09:13Z

@Rurouni Are you still having issues with this?

dgarlitt · 2017-06-02T20:33:32Z

I'm having a similar issue. When I have a ConfigMap template defined as follows:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: {{ .Release.Name }}-{{ .Chart.Name }}-configs
data:
  config.properties: |-
  {{ .Files.Get "config.properties" | indent 2 }}

And, config.properties contains multiple lines:

property1=some property value
property2=some other property value
property3=yet another property value

I receive the following error: Error: UPGRADE FAILED: YAML parse error on my-chart/templates/my-configs.yaml: error converting YAML to JSON: yaml: line 8: could not find expected ':'

However, it works fine if config.properties contains only one line, as follows:

property1=some property value

dgarlitt · 2017-06-02T20:42:08Z

For what it's worth, I found that I no longer get an error with multi-line files if I change my ConfigMap template to the following:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: {{ .Release.Name }}-{{ .Chart.Name }}-configs
data:
  config.properties: |-
{{ .Files.Get "config.properties" | indent 4 }}

Notice that {{ .Files.Get "config.properties" | indent 4 }} is outdented to the same level as the data key.

Rurouni · 2017-06-24T18:54:33Z

I haven't seen it for a while, so I am closing this

ravindranathakila · 2017-08-08T14:16:39Z

Happens due to a minor indent (1 instead of two, or two instead of four), in a wrong place.

hansharhoff · 2017-10-09T11:09:24Z

Is there a way to have helm output the bad yaml so we can debug?

bacongobbler · 2017-10-09T16:40:25Z

https://github.com/technosophos/helm-template

thomastaylor312 · 2017-10-10T01:10:32Z

☝️ Which has been merged into master and is coming out in 2.7

hmacias · 2018-04-05T20:12:22Z

Thank you @ravindranathakila. Indenting data with 4 spaces worked for me (in my case it required 4 spaces)!

fracasula · 2018-09-11T16:44:08Z

The error message in my case was quite cryptic, it was just complaining about a "line 8" without saying what file to look into. Like this basically: Error: UPGRADE FAILED: yaml: line 8: could not find expected ':'

I solved by running helm lint on it which was a lot more verbose in my case and it helped me identify the "bad" line.

The output with the lint was:

$ helm lint reducers
==> Linting reducers
[INFO] Chart.yaml: icon is recommended
[ERROR] templates/: render error in "reducers/templates/configmap.yaml": template: reducers/templates/configmap.yaml:24:27: executing "reducers/templates/configmap.yaml" at <.Values.global.kafka...>: can't evaluate field kafkaUrl in type interface {}

Error: 1 chart(s) linted, 1 chart(s) failed

Which of course has nothing to do with any line 8 but it definitely highlighted the right problem 👍

GaryCarneiro · 2019-02-08T13:51:04Z

I got this error while writing config maps object using Helm . This error had nothing to do with YAML but more with quotations

I was getting following

 error converting YAML to JSON: yaml: line 12: did not find expected key

Debugging:

I ran helm in debug and dry-run mode to see what was the property file format getting outputted

helm install --debug --name my-release-name ./my-superawesome-chart --dry-run

Solution:

Use quote method in the templates/your-config-map-definition.yaml

$ cat templates/your-config-map-definition.yaml

 ---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
 name: my-superawesome-app
data:
 application.properties: {{ .Files.Get "application.properties" | quote }}

pc-rshetty · 2019-03-09T00:49:40Z

this seems to work , but how do i make application.properties per environment ? example dev has different contents , qa has different and prod has different

iamamjad · 2020-03-12T18:37:38Z

apiVersion: apps/v1 # for versions before 1.9.0 use apps/v1beta2
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: mysql
spec:
selector:
matchLabels:
app: mysql8
strategy:
type: Recreate
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: mysql8
spec:
containers:

image: mysql:8.0
name: mysql
imagePullPolicy: Never
env:
name: MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD
value: .sweetpwd.
name: MYSQL_DATABASE
value: my_db
name: MYSQL_USER
value: db_user
name: MYSQL_PASSWORD
value: .mypwd
args: ["--default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password"]
ports:
- containerPort: 3306
  name: mysql8

abdennour · 2020-07-01T03:30:24Z

It happen when i didn't add metadata section in the nested template object, namely with cronjob (spec > jobTemplate > spec > template > spec) :

The error appeared when it was :

kind: CronJob
metadata:
  name: scheduler-{{ include "laravel.fullname" . }}
  labels:
    {{- include "laravel.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
spec:
  schedule: "{{ .Values.scheduler.schedule }}"
  jobTemplate:
    spec:
      template:
        spec:
          # containers: ...

And the error disappears when it is :

kind: CronJob
metadata:
  name: scheduler-{{ include "laravel.fullname" . }}
  labels:
    {{- include "laravel.labels" . | nindent 4 }}
spec:
  schedule: "{{ .Values.scheduler.schedule }}"
  jobTemplate:
    metadata:
      labels:
        {{- include "laravel.labels" . | nindent 8 }}
    spec:
      template:
        metadata:
          labels:
            {{- include "laravel.labels" . | nindent 12 }}
        spec:
          # containers: ...

NitsujY · 2021-11-02T03:07:01Z

I don't know whether this helps

test.json

{
    "asdfasdfasdf": "asd"
}

This return error converting YAML to JSON: yaml: line 8: did not find expected key

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: profile
data:
  token: |-
    {{ .Files.Get "files/test.json" }}

This return same error

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: profile
data:
  token: |-
  {{ .Files.Get "files/test.json" | indent 2}}

This works

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: profile
data:
  token: |-
{{ .Files.Get "files/test.json" | indent 4}}

maugsbur · 2021-11-17T14:44:47Z

I had a similar problem with a multiline yaml.

multiline yaml:

my_data: >-
  "some"
  "string"

This returned unable to parse YAML: error converting YAML to JSON:

data:
  token: "{{ .File.my_data }}"

Then taking out the quotes, it worked:

data:
  token: {{ .File.my_data }}

vignesh-desk · 2022-06-17T08:32:24Z

$ cat templates/config-map.yaml

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: my-schooltest-app
data:
  config_dev.json: |-
{{ .Files.Get "conf/config_dev.json" | indent 4}}
  config_qa.json: |-
{{ .Files.Get "conf/config_qa.json" | indent 4}}

config_dev.json (same as config_qa.json)

{
  "students": [
    {
      "name": "test1",
      "proffesion": "Engineer",
      "subjectCodes": [
        "SOCIAL",
        "SCIENCE",
        "MATHS"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "test2",
      "proffesion": "Engineer",
      "subjectCodes": [
        "ENGLISH",
        "TAMIL"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "allowedSubjects": [
    "SOCIAL",
    "SCIENCE",
    "MATHS",
    "ENGLISH",
	"TAMIL"
  ],
  "school": "trm",
  "headmaster": [
    "Test5"
  ]
}

I am having an issue in update the config file using the below command

kubectl apply -f helm/templates/config-map.yaml -n $NAMESPACE

**

error: error parsing helm/templates/config-map.yaml: error converting YAML to JSON: yaml: line 8: could not find expected ':'

**

Note: When I do the helm install deployment, it works fine. But my requirement is update the configmap without restarting the pod
Tried : is outdented to the same level as the data key as well

TheInfinity007 · 2023-04-05T18:45:56Z

In my case, I had JSON stringified config in Azure Key Vault. So, during deployment in the helm chart step, it gave me the same error
error converting JSON to YAML: yaml: did not find expected ',' or '}'

As a workaround, I base64 encoded the JSON stringified config and stored in key vault. This worked for me.

Hope someone will find this useful.

akshaypandhare17 · 2023-05-19T08:57:41Z

I don't know whether this helps

test.json

{
    "asdfasdfasdf": "asd"
}

This return error converting YAML to JSON: yaml: line 8: did not find expected key

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: profile
data:
  token: |-
    {{ .Files.Get "files/test.json" }}

This return same error

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: profile
data:
  token: |-
  {{ .Files.Get "files/test.json" | indent 2}}

This works

apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: profile
data:
  token: |-
{{ .Files.Get "files/test.json" | indent 4}}

This workds as expected if you are passing json content in helm values.yaml

thomastaylor312 added the question/support label Apr 15, 2017

Rurouni closed this as completed Jun 24, 2017

nicdoye mentioned this issue Jul 13, 2018

Helm upgrade with reuse-values, without --set gives YAML error #4337

Closed

shiva075gowda mentioned this issue Jun 7, 2019

Not working: Create configmap with data importing from json file #5852

Closed

NathanDotTo mentioned this issue Nov 28, 2021

helm lint "Killed" #10404

Closed

rcrozean mentioned this issue Aug 29, 2023

Change indent pattern in pod-identity-webook Deployment.yaml aws/eks-distro-build-tooling#1133

Merged

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Error converting YAML to JSON could not find expected ':' #2004

Error converting YAML to JSON could not find expected ':' #2004

Rurouni commented Feb 21, 2017

technosophos commented Feb 21, 2017

Rurouni commented Feb 23, 2017

thomastaylor312 commented Apr 15, 2017

dgarlitt commented Jun 2, 2017 •

edited

dgarlitt commented Jun 2, 2017 •

edited

Rurouni commented Jun 24, 2017

ravindranathakila commented Aug 8, 2017

hansharhoff commented Oct 9, 2017

bacongobbler commented Oct 9, 2017

thomastaylor312 commented Oct 10, 2017

hmacias commented Apr 5, 2018 •

edited

fracasula commented Sep 11, 2018

GaryCarneiro commented Feb 8, 2019 •

edited

pc-rshetty commented Mar 9, 2019

iamamjad commented Mar 12, 2020

abdennour commented Jul 1, 2020

NitsujY commented Nov 2, 2021

maugsbur commented Nov 17, 2021

vignesh-desk commented Jun 17, 2022 •

edited

TheInfinity007 commented Apr 5, 2023

akshaypandhare17 commented May 19, 2023

Error converting YAML to JSON could not find expected ':' #2004

Error converting YAML to JSON could not find expected ':' #2004

Comments

Rurouni commented Feb 21, 2017

technosophos commented Feb 21, 2017

Rurouni commented Feb 23, 2017

thomastaylor312 commented Apr 15, 2017

dgarlitt commented Jun 2, 2017 • edited

dgarlitt commented Jun 2, 2017 • edited

Rurouni commented Jun 24, 2017

ravindranathakila commented Aug 8, 2017

hansharhoff commented Oct 9, 2017

bacongobbler commented Oct 9, 2017

thomastaylor312 commented Oct 10, 2017

hmacias commented Apr 5, 2018 • edited

fracasula commented Sep 11, 2018

GaryCarneiro commented Feb 8, 2019 • edited

pc-rshetty commented Mar 9, 2019

iamamjad commented Mar 12, 2020

abdennour commented Jul 1, 2020

NitsujY commented Nov 2, 2021

maugsbur commented Nov 17, 2021

vignesh-desk commented Jun 17, 2022 • edited

config_dev.json (same as config_qa.json)

TheInfinity007 commented Apr 5, 2023

akshaypandhare17 commented May 19, 2023

dgarlitt commented Jun 2, 2017 •

edited

dgarlitt commented Jun 2, 2017 •

edited

hmacias commented Apr 5, 2018 •

edited

GaryCarneiro commented Feb 8, 2019 •

edited

vignesh-desk commented Jun 17, 2022 •

edited