✨ (alpha update command): add --force flag #4936

vitorfloriano · 2025-07-17T02:53:25Z

This PR adds the --force flag to the alpha update command, as well as e2e tests for the flag.

The --force flag makes it possible to run the alpha update command in CI workflows.

If the --force flag is not passed to the command, the update operation will abort if there are conflicts, informing the user that manual resolution is necessary:

vitor@pc:~/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/multiversion$ kubebuilder alpha update --from-version v4.5.0 --to-version v4.
6.0 --from-branch main
INFO Checking if is a git repository
INFO Checking if branch has uncommitted changes
INFO Binary version v4.5.0 is available
INFO Binary version v4.6.0 is available
INFO Checking out base branch: main
INFO Using branch names:
INFO   Ancestor: tmp-ancestor-16-07-25-23-25
INFO   Original:  tmp-original-16-07-25-23-25
INFO   Upgrade:  tmp-upgrade-16-07-25-23-25
INFO   Merge:    tmp-merge-16-07-25-23-25
...
...
...
...
WARN Merge stopped due to conflicts. Manual resolution is required. 
WARN After resolving the conflicts, run the following command: 
WARN     make manifests generate fmt vet lint-fix 
WARN This ensures manifests and generated files are up to date, and the project layout remains consistent. 
FATA Update failed: failed to merge upgrade into merge branch: merge stopped due to conflicts

If the --force flag is passed, the update will proceed, despite the conflicts, and commit the markers as is:

vitor@pc:~/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/multiversion$ kubebuilder alpha update --from-version v4.5.0 --to-version v4.6.0 --from-branch main --force
INFO Checking if is a git repository
INFO Checking if branch has uncommitted changes
INFO Binary version v4.5.0 is available
INFO Binary version v4.6.0 is available
INFO Checking out base branch: main
INFO Using branch names:
INFO   Ancestor: tmp-ancestor-16-07-25-23-39
INFO   Original:  tmp-original-16-07-25-23-39
INFO   Upgrade:  tmp-upgrade-16-07-25-23-39
INFO   Merge:    tmp-merge-16-07-25-23-39
...
...
...
...
...
...
INFO Preparing Merge branch with name tmp-merge-16-07-25-23-39 and performing merge
WARN Merge completed with conflicts. Conflict markers will be committed.

As a follow-up, we could find a way to not run the make targets if there are conflicts, to avoid the stream of warnings about failing operations caused by the presence of the markers in the code. Ending the operation with so many warnings could be confusing to users:

WARN Merge completed with conflicts. Conflict markers will be committed.
...
...
WARN make manifests failed: error running "make": exit status 2
...
...
WARN make generate failed: error running "make": exit status 2
...
...
WARN make fmt failed: error running "make": exit status 2
...
...
WARN make vet failed: error running "make": exit status 2
...
...
ERRO Running error: context loading failed: failed to load packages: failed to load packages: failed to load with go/pac
...
...
WARN make lint-fix failed: error running "make": exit status 2

k8s-ci-robot · 2025-07-17T02:53:32Z

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k8s-ci-robot · 2025-07-17T02:53:35Z

Hi @vitorfloriano. Thanks for your PR.

I'm waiting for a kubernetes-sigs member to verify that this patch is reasonable to test. If it is, they should reply with /ok-to-test on its own line. Until that is done, I will not automatically test new commits in this PR, but the usual testing commands by org members will still work. Regular contributors should join the org to skip this step.

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pkg/cli/alpha/internal/update/update.go

pkg/cli/alpha/update.go

test/e2e/alphaupdate/update_test.go

pkg/cli/alpha/update.go

camilamacedo86 · 2025-07-17T09:48:45Z

docs/book/src/reference/commands/alpha_update.md

+
+You might want to run `make all`, ensure that all tests are passing, and thoroughly validate the final result before committing and pushing a pull request to update your project from the `tmp-kb-update-merge` branch.
+
+</aside>


I think we need to imrpove here maybe give a little more of info like

## Handling Merge Conflicts If conflicts occur during a merge, Git will stop the process and leave the merge branch in a conflicted state for manual resolution. To proceed with the merge despite conflicts, you can use the `--force` option. This is useful in automated environments, such as CI pipelines or cron jobs, where you want to create a pull request with the changes — even if conflicts are present. ```bash git merge --force

The resulting commit will include conflict markers in the affected files:

<<<<<<< HEAD Your changes ======= Incoming changes >>>>>>> branch-name

The commit message will indicate that conflicts are present and need to be resolved manually.

Note: This approach is typically used in automation workflows where conflict markers are later addressed by a human, or where preserving the conflicting changes is acceptable for follow-up processing.

Then, we might no longer put in a note + we still needing explaing the targets part

Alright. I expanded this section with your suggestion.

camilamacedo86 · 2025-07-17T09:50:24Z

test/e2e/alphaupdate/update_test.go

@@ -105,6 +105,45 @@ var _ = Describe("kubebuilder", func() {
 			By("validating custom code preservation")
 			validateCustomCodePreservation(mockProjectDir)
 		})
+
+		It("should stop on merge conflicts when --force is not used", func() {
+			By("creating mock project with kubebuilder v4.5.2")


So, with conflict it is 4.5.0 to 4.6.0
Without conflict it is 4.5.2 to 4.6.0
Then, we can reuse the mock
and we can pass the version as arg.

@camilamacedo86 I created a mock using v4.5.2 (init, create api, etc) for testing and got the conflicts when updating to v4.6.0:

~/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator$ kubebuilder alpha update --from-version v4.5.2 --to-version v4.6.0 --from-branch main INFO Checking if is a git repository INFO Checking if branch has uncommitted changes INFO Binary version v4.5.2 is available INFO Binary version v4.6.0 is available INFO Checking out base branch: main INFO Using branch names: INFO Ancestor: tmp-ancestor-17-07-25-11-13 INFO Original: tmp-original-17-07-25-11-13 INFO Upgrade: tmp-upgrade-17-07-25-11-13 INFO Merge: tmp-merge-17-07-25-11-13 INFO Preparing Ancestor branch with name tmp-ancestor-17-07-25-11-13 INFO Generating project with version v4.5.2 WARN Using current working directory to re-scaffold the project WARN This directory will be cleaned up and all files removed before the re-generation INFO Cleaning directory:/home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator INFO Running cleanup: $ sh -c rm -rf /home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator/ * INFO kubebuilder init: $ kubebuilder init --plugins go.kubebuilder.io/v4 --domain example.com --repo github.com/example/mock-operator INFO Writing kustomize manifests for you to edit... INFO Writing scaffold for you to edit... INFO Get controller runtime: $ go get sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.20.4 INFO Update dependencies: $ go mod tidy Next: define a resource with: $ kubebuilder create api INFO kubebuilder create api: $ kubebuilder create api --plural webapps --group apps --version v1 --kind WebApp --resource --namespaced --controller INFO Writing kustomize manifests for you to edit... INFO Writing scaffold for you to edit... INFO api/v1/webapp_types.go INFO api/v1/groupversion_info.go INFO internal/controller/suite_test.go INFO internal/controller/webapp_controller.go INFO internal/controller/webapp_controller_test.go INFO Update dependencies: $ go mod tidy INFO Running make: $ make generate mkdir -p /home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator/bin Downloading sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/cmd/controller-gen@v0.17.2 /home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator/bin/controller-gen object:headerFile="hack/boilerplate.go.txt" paths="./..." Next: implement your new API and generate the manifests (e.g. CRDs,CRs) with: $ make manifests INFO Grafana plugin not found, skipping migration INFO Deploy-image plugin not found, skipping migration INFO Successfully ran alpha generatev4.5.2 INFO Running make manifests: $ make manifests /home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator/bin/controller-gen rbac:roleName=manager-role crd webhook paths="./..." output:crd:artifacts:config=config/crd/bases INFO Running make generate: $ make generate /home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator/bin/controller-gen object:headerFile="hack/boilerplate.go.txt" paths="./..." INFO Running make fmt: $ make fmt go fmt ./... INFO Running make vet: $ make vet go vet ./... INFO Running make lint-fix: $ make lint-fix Downloading github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/cmd/golangci-lint@v1.63.4 /home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator/bin/golangci-lint run --fix INFO Preparing Original branch with name tmp-original-17-07-25-11-13 INFO Preparing Upgrade branch with name tmp-upgrade-17-07-25-11-13 INFO Generating project with version v4.6.0 WARN Using current working directory to re-scaffold the project WARN This directory will be cleaned up and all files removed before the re-generation INFO Cleaning directory:/home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator INFO Running cleanup: $ sh -c rm -rf /home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator/ * INFO kubebuilder init: $ kubebuilder init --plugins go.kubebuilder.io/v4 --domain example.com --repo github.com/example/mock-operator INFO Writing kustomize manifests for you to edit... INFO Writing scaffold for you to edit... INFO Get controller runtime: $ go get sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.21.0 INFO Update dependencies: $ go mod tidy Next: define a resource with: $ kubebuilder create api INFO kubebuilder create api: $ kubebuilder create api --plural webapps --group apps --version v1 --kind WebApp --resource --namespaced --controller INFO Writing kustomize manifests for you to edit... INFO Writing scaffold for you to edit... INFO api/v1/webapp_types.go INFO api/v1/groupversion_info.go INFO internal/controller/suite_test.go INFO internal/controller/webapp_controller.go INFO internal/controller/webapp_controller_test.go INFO Update dependencies: $ go mod tidy INFO Running make: $ make generate mkdir -p /home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator/bin Downloading sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/cmd/controller-gen@v0.18.0 /home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator/bin/controller-gen object:headerFile="hack/boilerplate.go.txt" paths="./..." Next: implement your new API and generate the manifests (e.g. CRDs,CRs) with: $ make manifests INFO Grafana plugin not found, skipping migration INFO Deploy-image plugin not found, skipping migration INFO Successfully ran alpha generatev4.6.0 INFO Running make manifests: $ make manifests /home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator/bin/controller-gen rbac:roleName=manager-role crd webhook paths="./..." output:crd:artifacts:config=config/crd/bases INFO Running make generate: $ make generate /home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator/bin/controller-gen object:headerFile="hack/boilerplate.go.txt" paths="./..." INFO Running make fmt: $ make fmt go fmt ./... INFO Running make vet: $ make vet go vet ./... INFO Running make lint-fix: $ make lint-fix Downloading github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/v2/cmd/golangci-lint@v2.1.0 /home/vitor/go/src/github.com/vitorfloriano/operator-project/mock-operator/bin/golangci-lint run --fix 0 issues. INFO Preparing Merge branch with name tmp-merge-17-07-25-11-13 and performing merge WARN Merge stopped due to conflicts. Manual resolution is required. WARN After resolving the conflicts, run the following command: WARN make manifests generate fmt vet lint-fix WARN This ensures manifests and generated files are up to date, and the project layout remains consistent. FATA Update failed: failed to merge upgrade into merge branch: merge stopped due to conflicts

So I believe we can use v4.5.2 for all test cases.

Let me know what you think.

This commit adds the --force flag to the alpha update command. It also adds e2e tests and documentation for the flag. The --force flag makes it possible to run the alpha update command in CI workflows.

k8s-ci-robot added the cncf-cla: yes Indicates the PR's author has signed the CNCF CLA. label Jul 17, 2025

k8s-ci-robot requested review from rashmigottipati and varshaprasad96 July 17, 2025 02:53

k8s-ci-robot added needs-ok-to-test Indicates a PR that requires an org member to verify it is safe to test. size/M Denotes a PR that changes 30-99 lines, ignoring generated files. labels Jul 17, 2025