Kubernetes object matcher

K8S-ObjectMatcher is a Golang library which helps to match Kubernetes objects.

Motivation

Here at Banzai Cloud we love and write lots of Kubernetes operators. While writing some complex operators as the Istio , Vault or Kafka operator, we encountered a huge amount of unnecessary Kubernetes object updates. Most of the operators out there are using reflect.DeepEquals to match the given object's Spec. Unfortunately, this solution is not perfect because every Kubernetes object is amended with different default values while submitted. This library aims to provide finer object matching capabilities to avoid unnecessary updates and more observability on the client side.

Legacy version deprecation notice

There is a legacy version of the lib, that is now deprecated and documented here: docs/legacy.md

How does it work?

The library uses the same method that kubectl apply does under the hood to calculate a patch using the three way merge method. However for this to work properly we need to keep track of the last applied version of our object, let's call it the original. Unfortunately Kubernetes does not keep track of our previously submitted object versions, but we can put it into an annotation like kubectl apply does. Next time we query the current state of the object from the API Server we can extract the original version from the annotation.

Once we have the the original, the current and our new modified object in place the library will take care of the rest.

Example steps demonstrated on a v1.Service object

Create a new object, annotate it, then submit normally

original := &v1.Service{
  ...
}

if err := patch.DefaultAnnotator.SetLastAppliedAnnotation(original); err != nil {
  ...
}

client.CoreV1().Services(original.GetNamespace()).Create(original)

Next time we check the diff and set the last applied annotation in case we have to update

modified := &v1.Service{
  ...
}

current, err := client.CoreV1().Services(modified.GetNamespace()).Get(modified.GetName(), metav1.Getoptions{})

patchResult, err := patch.DefaultPatchMaker.Calculate(current, modified)
if err != nil {
  return err
}

if !patchResult.IsEmpty() {
  if err := patch.DefaultAnnotator.SetLastAppliedAnnotation(modified); err != nil {
  	...
  }
  client.CoreV1().Services(modified.GetNamespace()).Update(modified)
}

CalculateOptions

In certain cases there is a need to filter out certain fields when the patch generated by the library is false positive. To help in these scenarios there are the following options to be used when calculating diffs:

IgnoreStatusFields
IgnoreVolumeClaimTemplateTypeMetaAndStatus
IgnorePDBSelector

Example:

	opts := []patch.CalculateOption{
		patch.IgnoreStatusFields(),
	}
	
	patchResult, err := patch.DefaultPatchMaker.Calculate(existing.(runtime.Object), newObject.(runtime.Object), opts...)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

IgnoreStatusFields

This CalculateOptions removes status fields from both objects before comparing.

IgnoreVolumeClaimTemplateTypeMetaAndStatus

This CalculateOption clears volumeClaimTemplate fields from both objects before comparing (applies to statefulsets).

IgnorePdbSelector

Checks selector fields of PDB objects before comparing and removes them if they match. reflect.DeepEquals is used for the equality check. This is required because map fields using patchStrategy:"replace" will always diff regardless if they are otherwise equal.

Contributing

If you find this project useful here's how you can help:

Send a pull request with your new features and bug fixes
Help new users with issues they may encounter
Support the development of this project and star this repo!

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

john-a-joyce/k8s-objectmatcher