Salt stack - error parsing configuration file: /etc/salt/master - salt-stack

Question

I am trying to learn Salt. Proving to be cumbersome. Can't even get around master config. What is wrong with the below line?
#/etc/salt/master
file_roots:
base:
- /home/ubuntu/workspace/salt/states/base
salt-key -L
[ERROR ] Error parsing configuration file: /etc/salt/master - expected '<document start>', but found '<block mapping start>'
in "<string>", line 298, column 1:
file_roots:
^
##### File Server settings #####
##########################################
# Salt runs a lightweight file server written in zeromq to deliver files to
# minions. This file server is built into the master daemon and does not
# require a dedicated port.
# The file server works on environments passed to the master, each environment
# can have multiple root directories, the subdirectories in the multiple file
# roots cannot match, otherwise the downloaded files will not be able to be
# reliably ensured. A base environment is required to house the top file.
# Example:
file_roots:
base:
- /home/ubuntu/workspace/salt/states/base
# development:
# - /home/ubuntu/workspace/salt/states/dev
# dev:
# - /srv/salt/dev/services
# - /srv/salt/dev/states
# prod:
# - /srv/salt/prod/services
# - /srv/salt/prod/states
#file_roots:
# base:
# - /srv/salt

Answer 1

Here's the problem:
In YAML, spacing and indentation is really important. You should have two spaces for each level. While you have 2 spaces for base:, you should have 4 spaces before
- /home/ubuntu/workspace/salt/states/base
Here's the correct one:
file_roots:
base:
- /home/ubuntu/workspace/salt/states/base

Answer 2

Without seeing more of the relevant section of your /etc/salt/master it's difficult to give you the exact answer to your problem, but you're seeing a malformed yaml error. Your file_roots section should look similar to this:
file_roots:
base:
- /srv/salt
There's more info here:
http://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/file_server/file_roots.html#directory-overlay
Also, it's possible that there's an error above the yaml you're displaying.
If you'll post more of your config (sanitized of course) we can better help you.