Markers for Config/Code Generation

Kubebuilder makes use of a tool called controller-gen for generating utility code and Kubernetes YAML. This code and config generation is controlled by the presence of special “marker comments” in Go code.

Markers are single-line comments that start with a plus, followed by a marker name, optionally followed by some marker specific configuration:

// +kubebuilder:validation:Optional
// +kubebuilder:validation:MaxItems=2
// +kubebuilder:printcolumn:JSONPath=".status.replicas",name=Replicas,type=string

See each subsection for information about different types of code and YAML generation.

Generating Code & Artifacts in Kubebuilder

Kubebuilder projects have two make targets that make use of controller-gen:

• make manifests generates Kubernetes object YAML, like CustomResourceDefinitions, WebhookConfigurations, and RBAC roles.

• make generate generates code, like runtime.Object/DeepCopy implementations.

See Generating CRDs for a comprehensive overview.

Marker Syntax

Exact syntax is described in the godocs for controller-tools.

In general, markers may either be:

• Empty (+kubebuilder:validation:Optional): empty markers are like boolean flags on the command line – just specifying them enables some behavior.

• Anonymous (+kubebuilder:validation:MaxItems=2): anonymous markers take a single value as their argument.

• Multi-option (+kubebuilder:printcolumn:JSONPath=".status.replicas",name=Replicas,type=string): multi-option markers take one or more named arguments. The first argument is separated from the name by a colon, and latter arguments are comma-separated. Order of arguments doesn’t matter. Some arguments may be optional.

Marker arguments may be strings, ints, bools, slices, or maps thereof. Strings, ints, and bools follow their Go syntax:

// +kubebuilder:validation:ExclusiveMaximum=false
// +kubebuilder:validation:Format="date-time"
// +kubebuilder:validation:Maximum=42

For convenience, in simple cases the quotes may be omitted from strings, although this is not encouraged for anything other than single-word strings:

// +kubebuilder:validation:Type=string

Slices may be specified either by surrounding them with curly braces and separating with commas:

// +kubebuilder:webhooks:Enum={"crackers, Gromit, we forgot the crackers!","not even wensleydale?"}

or, in simple cases, by separating with semicolons:

// +kubebuilder:validation:Enum=Wallace;Gromit;Chicken

Maps are specified with string keys and values of any type (effectively map[string]interface{}). A map is surrounded by curly braces ({}), each key and value is separated by a colon (:), and each key-value pair is separated by a comma:

// +kubebuilder:default={magic: {numero: 42, stringified: forty-two}}