Kubernetes kustomize command giving error when we specify base manifest files in kustomization.yaml file under resources section

Question

I am trying to build manifest file for specific environment example:- test and I want to re-use base manifest files as mentioned below.

k8s/kustomize/overlays/test/kustomization.yaml

commonLabels:
  variant: test
  app: test-app
resources:
- ../../base/deployment.yaml
- ../../base/service.yaml
- ../../base/configmap.yaml
- ../../base/secret.yaml
- namespace.yaml
namespace: app-test
patchesStrategicMerge:
- secret.yaml
- configmap.yaml

But I got below error when I run the command - kustomize build k8s/kustomize/overlay/test

2020/02/19 16:04:36 got file 'deployment.yaml', but 'path/k8s/kustomize/base/deployment.yaml' must be a directory to be a root
Error: accumulating resources: accumulating resources from '../../base/deployment.yaml': security; file 'path/k8s/kustomize/base/deployment.yaml' is not in or below 'path/k8s/kustomize/overlay/test'

P.S: kustomize version is - Version: {KustomizeVersion:3.2.0 GitCommit:a3103f1e62ddb5b696daa3fd359bb6f2e8333b49 BuildDate:2019-09-18T18:31:04+01:00 GoOs:darwin GoArch:amd64}

I am new to kubernetes and kustomize. Could Please help me ?

Answer 1

Kustomize doesn't allow you to directly include resource files that are not in the same directory or a subdirectory of where your kustomization.yml file is located.

The usual way to use a base in your overlay is to add a kustomization.yml file in the base and include the base directory in the kustomization.yml of your overlay. For example:

k8s/kustomize/base/kustomization.yaml:

resources:
- deployment.yaml
- service.yaml
- configmap.yaml
- secret.yaml

and in k8s/kustomize/overlays/test/kustomization.yaml:

resources:
- ../../base
- namespace.yaml

namespace: app-test

commonLabels:
  variant: test
  app: test-app

patchesStrategicMerge:
- secret.yaml
- configmap.yaml

Answer 2

Maybe something change because the following example does that the question was trying to do: https://kubectl.docs.kubernetes.io/references/kustomize/kustomization/resource/

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

resources:
- myNamespace.yaml
- sub-dir/some-deployment.yaml
- ../../commonbase
- github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/examples/multibases?ref=v1.0.6
- deployment.yaml
- github.com/kubernets-sigs/kustomize/examples/helloWorld?ref=test-branch