kubectl apply -k throws Error: rawResources failed to read Resources: Load from path ../../base failed: '../../base' must be a file

Question

Can you please help me figure out why kubectl apply fails? When I try to run kubectl apply -k k8s/overlays/dev it fails with error message "error: rawResources failed to read Resources: Load from path ../../base failed: '../../base' must be a file" But if I run kustomize build k8s/overlays/dev it works fine.

folder structure

|____k8s
| |____overlays
| | |____dev
| | | |____kustomization.yaml
| |____base
| | |____deployment.yaml
| | |____kustomization.yaml

k8s/base/deployment.yaml

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: my-app
spec:
  replicas: 1
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: my-app
          image: my-app:v1
          ports:
            - containerPort: 8080
              protocol: TCP

k8s/base/kustomization.yaml

apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization

resources:
- deployment.yaml

commonLabels:
  app: my-app

k8s/overlays/dev/kustomization.yaml

apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization

resources:
- ../../base

Answer 1

Upgrading kubectl to v1.21.0 solved the issue.