skaffold requires kustomize on path

[base698]

Expected behavior

skaffold dev to work without installing kustomize. kubectl kustomize has been available since kubectl version 1.14.

Actual behavior

FATA[0040] exiting dev mode because first deploy failed: reading manifests: kustomize build: starting command kustomize build .: exec: "kustomize": executable file not found in $PATH

Information

• Skaffold version: v1.3.1
• Operating system: ...
• Contents of skaffold.yaml:

apiVersion: skaffold/v1
kind: Config
deploy:
  kustomize:
    path: "."

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. any
2. skaffold dev

[corneliusweig]

Thanks for reporting. This is mentioned on https://skaffold.dev/docs/pipeline-stages/deployers/ at the bottom of the page. Where would you have looked for this information?

https://skaffold.dev/docs/install/ seems to be a natural place and it's missing there.

---

For completeness: This applies to all third-party tools used by Skaffold. This includes helm, kustomize, kubectl, and docker.

[base698]

@corneliusweig I'm saying that skaffold should not require kustomize. Why would kustomize need to be on path if kubectl is already there?

[corneliusweig]

This is also tracked by #1781.

There are some tradeoffs though. The version bundled with kubectl is a bit outdated and does not come with all the features you find on the kustomize homepage. For the time being, the standalone kustomize seems the safer option to me.

[dgageot]

I'm going to close this issue as a duplicate of #1781. I think supporting both the standalone and the built-in version would be nice.