Better error message when patch is the wrong type?

[roy-work]

What happened?

If I attempt the supplied patch, kustomize errors.

What did you expect to happen?

The patch is applied, or, if not, a usable diagnostic as to what is wrong with the input given.

How can we reproduce it (as minimally and precisely as possible)?

# kustomization.yaml
apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization
resources:
  - argocd.yaml
patchesJson6902:
  - target:
      group: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
      version: v1
      kind: ClusterRole
      name: argocd-server
    patch:
      - op: add
        path: "/rules/3/verbs/2"
        value: "update"

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  labels:
    app.kubernetes.io/component: server
    app.kubernetes.io/name: argocd-server
    app.kubernetes.io/part-of: argocd
  name: argocd-server
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - '*'
  resources:
  - '*'
  verbs:
  - delete
  - get
  - patch
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - events
  verbs:
  - list
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - pods
  - pods/log
  verbs:
  - get
- apiGroups:
  - argoproj.io
  resources:
  - applications
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch

Expected output

#[rest same as before]
- apiGroups:
  - argoproj.io
  resources:
  - applications
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - update
  - watch

Actual output

» kustomize build .
Error: invalid Kustomization: json: cannot unmarshal array into Go struct field Patch.patchesJson6902.patch of type string

Kustomize version

v5.0.1

Operating system

MacOS

[roy-work]

Okay, this is partial user-error, but a.) this is really hard to see and b.) the error message could be loads more helpful in pointing me in the right direction here.

This:

    patch:

needs to be,

    patch: |

Kustomize requires the entire JSON patch to be double-encoded …

[koba1t]

I think patchesJson6902.[].patch requires the format of yaml string in multi-line literal is a reasonable reason.
Because I think patchesJson6902.[].patch is just converted for Yaml format of json6902.
https://kubectl.docs.kubernetes.io/references/kustomize/kustomization/patchesjson6902/

But I agree your opinion with be a better error message.
/triage accepted

[k8s-triage-robot]

This issue has not been updated in over 1 year, and should be re-triaged.

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/remove-triage accepted