Cryptic error message when there is no write access to SSH key

[gecube]

Hi!

I am creating this ticket as reminder and as a follow-up to the next discussion in Slack.

The original behaviour:

optimus  	imageupdateautomation/image-policy-settings	2023-02-27T23:11:59+01:00	False    	False	unknown error: remote: 	
querytool	imageupdateautomation/image-policy-settings	2023-02-27T23:21:22+01:00	False    	True 	no updates made   

$ flux version -o json
{
  "flux": "v0.38.2",
  "helm-controller": "v0.28.1",
  "image-automation-controller": "v0.28.0",
  "image-reflector-controller": "v0.23.1",
  "kustomize-controller": "v0.32.0",
  "notification-controller": "v0.30.2",
  "source-controller": "v0.33.0"
}

Image automation writes the cryptic error message "unknown error: remote:". It does not contain any clue about of the reason of the issue. In fact, I figured out that I forgot to add "write" permission to ssh key used to access the repo.

After I ticked the check box, the error message went away and the synchronisation of the image name to repo began to work.

Expected behaviour:

Change the error message to something meaningful like "The ssh key does not have write permission. Please check the permissions of the key"

[kingdonb]

Duplicate of:

• Observing flux unknown error: error: the key you are authenticating with has been marked as read only. #208
• Insufficient error message: "unknown error: remote:" #101
• Image Automation not providing error message when git-repo has no write-access #102

This should not be closed before we capture the error class somehow 👍 thank you for reporting

[nick4fake]

Just spent about 2 hours with literally the same problem. Looks like message is trimmed.

As a temporary solution there might be some docs message that states "please check push acces, you might have forgotten it"

[RogerSik]

Same error message

Events:
  Type     Reason  Age              From                         Message
  ----     ------  ----             ----                         -------
  Warning  error   2s (x2 over 5s)  image-automation-controller  unknown error: remote:

but my token has access to write to this repository and i have no clue where to looks for more messages.

[mkarthiatgithub]

spend about 3 hours ...