Replace BuildBot Functionality / Bootstrap GoReleaser

[timflannagan]

Goal: POC whether goreleaser can be used to replace the release-related functionality that buildbot previously supported.

• Initialize GoReleaser configuration for the KGateway project.
• Configure multi-architecture builds for our Go binaries.
• Ensure the built container images are correctly tagged and ready for publishing.
• Note: we can potentially do this in a fork first to verify any blockers for adoption within this repo.

Ref:

• https://goreleaser.com/
• https://github.com/goreleaser/goreleaser

[timflannagan]

I'm playing around with integrating this in my fork. So far, I haven't run into any obvious snags and I have multi-arch image publishing to https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/tflannag/k8sgateway/general and releases working. See https://github.com/timflannagan/k8sgateway/tree/poc/goreleaser for the full set of changes.

I added a release Makefile command and I've been testing publishing via make release GORELEASER_ARGS="--clean --skip=announce,validate" IMAGE_REGISTRY=docker.io/tflannag IMAGE_REPO=k8sgateway. As an aside, we really need to overhaul the Makefile targets as well as long as renaming the repository.

[timflannagan]

Using GHCR instead of dockerhub seems to work without any issues as well:

$ docker run ghcr.io/timflannagan/k8sgateway:1.0.1-dev                                                                                                                                                                                      125 ↵
Unable to find image 'ghcr.io/timflannagan/k8sgateway:1.0.1-dev' locally
1.0.1-dev: Pulling from timflannagan/k8sgateway
Digest: sha256:464d63f97c867ac627616510500ea7a93c91e966e6993db831490f4351a548c1
Status: Downloaded newer image for ghcr.io/timflannagan/k8sgateway:1.0.1-dev
{"level":"info","ts":"2025-01-14T00:36:18.238Z","caller":"probes/probes.go:57","msg":"probe server starting at :8765 listening for /healthz"}
{"level":"error","ts":"2025-01-14T00:36:18Z","logger":"gloo.controller-runtime.client.config","msg":"unable to load in-cluster config","version":"1.0.1-dev","error":"unable to load in-cluster configuration, KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST and KUBERNETES_SERVICE_PORT must be defined","stacktrace":"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client/config.loadConfig.func1\n\t/home/timflannagan/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.19.1/pkg/client/config/config.go:133\nsigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client/config.loadConfig\n\t/home/timflannagan/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.19.1/pkg/client/config/config.go:155\nsigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client/config.GetConfigWithContext\n\t/home/timflannagan/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.19.1/pkg/client/config/config.go:97\nsigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client/config.GetConfig\n\t/home/timflannagan/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.19.1/pkg/client/config/config.go:77\nsigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client/config.GetConfigOrDie\n\t/home/timflannagan/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.19.1/pkg/client/config/config.go:175\ngithub.com/solo-io/gloo/projects/gateway2/setup.StartGGv2\n\t/work/k8sgateway/projects/gateway2/setup/ggv2setup.go:69\ngithub.com/solo-io/gloo/projects/gloo/pkg/setup.startSetupLoop\n\t/work/k8sgateway/projects/gloo/pkg/setup/setup.go:22\ngithub.com/solo-io/gloo/projects/gloo/pkg/setup.Main\n\t/work/k8sgateway/projects/gloo/pkg/setup/setup.go:18\nmain.main\n\t/work/k8sgateway/projects/gloo/cmd/main.go:17\nruntime.main\n\t/home/timflannagan/go/pkg/mod/golang.org/toolchain@v0.0.1-go1.23.3.linux-arm64/src/runtime/proc.go:272"}
{"level":"error","ts":"2025-01-14T00:36:18Z","logger":"gloo.controller-runtime.client.config","msg":"unable to get kubeconfig","version":"1.0.1-dev","error":"invalid configuration: no configuration has been provided, try setting KUBERNETES_MASTER environment variable","errorCauses":[{"error":"no configuration has been provided, try setting KUBERNETES_MASTER environment variable"}],"stacktrace":"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client/config.GetConfigOrDie\n\t/home/timflannagan/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime@v0.19.1/pkg/client/config/config.go:177\ngithub.com/solo-io/gloo/projects/gateway2/setup.StartGGv2\n\t/work/k8sgateway/projects/gateway2/setup/ggv2setup.go:69\ngithub.com/solo-io/gloo/projects/gloo/pkg/setup.startSetupLoop\n\t/work/k8sgateway/projects/gloo/pkg/setup/setup.go:22\ngithub.com/solo-io/gloo/projects/gloo/pkg/setup.Main\n\t/work/k8sgateway/projects/gloo/pkg/setup/setup.go:18\nmain.main\n\t/work/k8sgateway/projects/gloo/cmd/main.go:17\nruntime.main\n\t/home/timflannagan/go/pkg/mod/golang.org/toolchain@v0.0.1-go1.23.3.linux-arm64/src/runtime/proc.go:272"}

Used the make release GORELEASER_ARGS="--clean --skip=announce,validate" IMAGE_REGISTRY=ghcr.io/timflannagan IMAGE_REPO=k8sgateway command.

[lgadban]

Can we enumerate the features etc. that we used previously from buildbot?
IMO this will make it easier to understand the tradeoffs of moving away from buildbot

[timflannagan]

@lgadban I'll add a TODO to audit the current cloudbuilder config for the release-related items. I'd be shocked if this tool doesn't support all it's relevant use cases and meets our needs going forward.

[timflannagan]

Goreleaser supports disabling the changelog generation functionality: https://goreleaser.com/customization/changelog/. This is related to #10422, which proposes a new way to manage changelogs / release notes going forward and won't conflict with goreleasers' own functionality.

[lgadban]

what would dev releases look like?
what would weekly releases look like?

[timflannagan]

Just sketching out what I think we could do for the release workflow:

• event triggers: workflow_dispatch, PRs to main, and tags
  • for PRs to main, we run a subset of the pipeline to make sure it doesn't silently break over time
  • open question on nightlies. there's definitely some appetite for nightly or weekly builds, but this is a free GH org and there was some concern we'd blast through our actions budget
• dedicated job for building the helm chart and publishing to GHCR
• dedicated job for running goreleaser

We can update the goreleaser config to add a header or footer for how to find the helm charts:

## Install

Helm charts can be found at <...>.

...

## Changelog

<TBD>