@krousey @jlowdermilk @deads2k

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Why not lock the entire ModifyConfig to ensure a coherent view of the data? It's likely to modify multiple elements anyway?

@cjcullen I agree with @deads2k. We should have a lock (or set of locks in this weird multi-config file setup that we seem to support) that we hold for the entirety of the read/modify/write cycle.

That's tough in this possibly multi-file setup. Could I call configAccess.GetLoadingPrecedence() and "lock" all of the files before I do anything?

@cjcullen That might be best for now. You also might want to make sure the directory exists before creating the lock file.

@deads2k Do we really need this multi-file setup?

@deads2k Do we really need this multi-file setup?

It only exists to support merging kubeconfig files together using an env var, but that was a usage that @ghodss pushed rather hard for. I don't want remove it without a very good reason.

I think for the short term, we want a lock file per config file held across the entirety of ModifyConfig.

Long term, I'd like to question the usefulness of having multiple config files.

@deads2k Given how complicated this code looks, I wouldn't want to keep it without a very good reason. I'm probably just not aware of the use-cases, but I'd like to be enlightened.

@deads2k Given how complicated this code looks, I wouldn't want to keep it without a very good reason. I'm probably just not aware of the use-cases, but I'd like to be enlightened.

I'm not aware of anyone using it besides @ghodss . @smarterclayton or @bgrant0607 have you see anyone else use multiple kubeconfig files in an env var for merging?

Here are the issues/use cases for multiple config files - though I'm not sure if this refers to any possibility of multiple files in ~/.kube/, or multiple files spread throughout the file system that get merged together.

Multiple files in ~/.kube, like ~/.kube/config and ~/.kube/kubectl: #10693
Multiple .kubeconfig files getting merged: #9298

Closing in favor of #28232.

Opened #28260 to continue the general refactoring discussion.