Upgrading from v0.16.5 -> v0.17.0 causes controller-gen crd generator to panic

[kate-osborn]

We are getting the following panic after upgrading from 0.16.5 to 0.17.0 when running the crd generator:

go run sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/cmd/controller-gen@v0.17.0 crd object paths=./apis/... output:crd:artifacts:config=config/crd/bases
go: downloading sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools v0.17.0
panic: interface conversion: *types.Struct is not interface { Obj() *types.TypeName }: missing method Obj

goroutine 1 [running]:
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.localNamedToSchema(0xc000fd3aa0, 0xc0005f26e0)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:299 +0x3eb
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.typeToSchema(0xc000fd3aa0, {0xec6900, 0xc0005f26e0})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:220 +0xd9
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.structToSchema(0xc000a5d568, 0xc000714120)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:477 +0x872
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.typeToSchema(0xc000a5d568, {0xec68d0, 0xc000714120})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:230 +0x93
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.infoToSchema(0xc000a5d568)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:139 +0x165
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.(*Parser).NeedSchemaFor(0xc000[55](https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/actions/runs/12660268000/job/35281123021?pr=2962#step:8:56)e0c0, {0xc0004070a0, {0xc000410810, 0x14}})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/parser.go:193 +0x290
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.(*schemaContext).requestSchema(0xc00030cf30?, {0x0?, 0xd73825?}, {0xc000410810?, 0x0?})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:108 +0xdb
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.localNamedToSchema(0xc000a5d9a0, 0xc000706320)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:305 +0x4ae
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.typeToSchema(0xc000a5d9a0, {0xec6900, 0xc000706320})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:220 +0xd9
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.arrayToSchema(0xc000fd3a10, 0xc0007112c0)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:343 +0x10a
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.typeToSchema(0xc000fd3a10, {0xec6960, 0xc0007112c0})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:224 +0x51
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.structToSchema(0xc000a5de[58](https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/actions/runs/12660268000/job/35281123021?pr=2962#step:8:59), 0xc000714480)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:477 +0x872
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.typeToSchema(0xc000a5de58, {0xec68d0, 0xc000714480})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:230 +0x93
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.infoToSchema(0xc000a5de58)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:139 +0x165
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.(*Parser).NeedSchemaFor(0xc00055e0c0, {0xc0004070a0, {0xc0003[60](https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/actions/runs/12660268000/job/35281123021?pr=2962#step:8:61)8f0, 0xc}})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/parser.go:193 +0x290
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.(*schemaContext).requestSchema(0xc000fd3950?, {0xc00030cf30?, 0xd73825?}, {0xc0003608f0?, 0xc?})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:108 +0xdb
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.namedToSchema(0xc000fd3950, 0xc000012858)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:322 +0x234
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.typeToSchema(0xc000fd3950, {0xec6930, 0xc000012858})
/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:222 +0xf6
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.structToSchema(0xc000a5e650, 0xc000012870)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:477 +0x872
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.typeToSchema(0xc000a5e650, {0xec68d0, 0xc000012870})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:230 +0x[93](https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/actions/runs/12660268000/job/35281123021?pr=2962#step:8:94)
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.infoToSchema(0xc000a5e650)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:139 +0x165
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.(*Parser).NeedSchemaFor(0xc00055e0c0, {0xc000407080, {0xc0004f2018, 0x14}})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/parser.go:193 +0x290
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.(*Parser).NeedFlattenedSchemaFor(0xc00055e0c0, {0xc000407080, {0xc0004f2018, 0x14}})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/parser.go:205 +0xcd
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.(*Parser).NeedCRDFor(0xc00055e0c0, {{0xc00003e3ce, 0x11}, {0xc0004f2018, 0x14}}, 0x0)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/spec.go:93 +0x57a
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.Generator.Generate({0x0, 0x0, 0x0, {0x0, 0x0, 0x0}, 0x0, {0x0, 0x0}, {0x0, ...}, ...}, ...)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/gen.go:182 +0x566
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/genall.(*Runtime).Run(0xc0001823f0)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/genall/genall.go:272 +0x234
main.main.func1(0xc0001f4200?, {0xc00024e280?, 0x4?, 0xd7193d?})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/cmd/controller-gen/main.go:176 +0x6a
github.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).execute(0xc000204c08, {0xc000036060, 0x4, 0x4})
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.8.1/command.go:[98](https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/actions/runs/12660268000/job/35281123021?pr=2962#step:8:99)5 +0xaaa
github.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).ExecuteC(0xc000204c08)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.8.1/command.go:1117 +0x3ff
github.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).Execute(...)
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.8.1/command.go:1041
main.main()
	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/cmd/controller-gen/main.go:200 +0x2f6
exit status 2

Link to failed workflow: https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/actions/runs/12660268000/job/35281123021?pr=2962

We are running the following command:

go run sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/cmd/controller-gen@v0.17.0 crd object paths=./apis/... output:crd:artifacts:config=config/crd/bases

[camilamacedo86]

What is your go-version?

[abhay-krishna]

@camilamacedo86 I am running into the same issue and my Go version is v1.23.4.

[camilamacedo86]

Hi @abhay-krishna

I can see

panic: interface conversion: *types.Struct is not interface { Obj() *types.TypeName }: missing method Obj

So, could you give an example of how we can reproduce the scenario?
It seems related to some specific definition of your APIs

PS. We updated the version of controller-gen in Kubebuilder, and we did not find any issues in the tests and samples, which leads us to think that it is related to a specific use case bug or problems with your solution itself.

Therefore, having the steps to reproduce the scenario would be nice.

[kate-osborn]

@camilamacedo86 our go version is 1.23.0. We are running controller-gen on the types in this folder: https://github.com/nginx/nginx-gateway-fabric/tree/main/apis/v1alpha1

[abhay-krishna]

@camilamacedo86 We hit this issue when running the generate-manifests Make target, aws/eks-anywhere or by directly running go run with version controller-gen v0.17.0. Our types are stored here and we're passing this in the paths argument.

$ go version                                                                             
go version go1.23.4 darwin/arm64

$ go run sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/cmd/controller-gen@v0.17.0 paths=./pkg/api/... \ 
    paths=./controllers/... \
    paths=./manager/... \
    crd:crdVersions=v1 \
    rbac:roleName=manager-role \
    output:crd:dir=./config/crd/bases \
    output:webhook:dir=./config/webhook \
    webhook

panic: interface conversion: *types.Struct is not interface { Obj() *types.TypeName }: missing method Obj

goroutine 1 [running]:
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.localNamedToSchema(0x14005c4d8f8, 0x1400145aa00)
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:299 +0x37c
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.typeToSchema(0x14005c4d8f8, {0x1013c9558, 0x1400145aa00})
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:220 +0xd0
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.arrayToSchema(0x14005150bd0, 0x14001451d40)
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:343 +0x11c
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.typeToSchema(0x14005150bd0, {0x1013c95b8, 0x14001451d40})
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:224 +0x58
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.structToSchema(0x14005c4ddb8, 0x14001458a20)
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:477 +0x7d8
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.typeToSchema(0x14005c4ddb8, {0x1013c9528, 0x14001458a20})
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:230 +0x90
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.infoToSchema(0x14005c4ddb8)
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:139 +0x150
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.(*Parser).NeedSchemaFor(0x14000102900, {0x140009923c0, {0x1400037f6d0, 0xd}})
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/parser.go:193 +0x1e8
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.(*schemaContext).requestSchema(0x140004ec060?, {0x0?, 0x1010f1524?}, {0x1400037f6d0?, 0x0?})
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:108 +0xd8
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.localNamedToSchema(0x14005150900, 0x14001689280)
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:305 +0x42c
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.typeToSchema(0x14005150900, {0x1013c9558, 0x14001689280})
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:220 +0xd0
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.structToSchema(0x14005c4e5f8, 0x14001692300)
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:477 +0x7d8
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.typeToSchema(0x14005c4e5f8, {0x1013c9528, 0x14001692300})
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:230 +0x90
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.infoToSchema(0x14005c4e5f8)
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/schema.go:139 +0x150
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.(*Parser).NeedSchemaFor(0x14000102900, {0x140009923c0, {0x140006d5dd0, 0x7}})
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/parser.go:193 +0x1e8
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.(*Parser).NeedFlattenedSchemaFor(0x14000102900, {0x140009923c0, {0x140006d5dd0, 0x7}})
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/parser.go:205 +0x9c
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.(*Parser).NeedCRDFor(0x14000102900, {{0x14000f5e1be, 0x1a}, {0x140006d5dd0, 0x7}}, 0x0)
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/spec.go:93 +0x3d8
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/crd.Generator.Generate({0x0, 0x0, 0x0, {0x14000190050, 0x1, 0x1}, 0x0, {0x0, 0x0}, {0x0, ...}, ...}, ...)
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/crd/gen.go:182 +0x464
sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/genall.(*Runtime).Run(0x140011a9320)
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/pkg/genall/genall.go:272 +0x21c
main.main.func1(0x140002d8200?, {0x140000b3380?, 0x4?, 0x1010ef714?})
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/cmd/controller-gen/main.go:176 +0x64
github.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).execute(0x14000032f08, {0x140001b6010, 0x8, 0x8})
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.8.1/command.go:985 +0x834
github.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).ExecuteC(0x14000032f08)
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.8.1/command.go:1117 +0x344
github.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).Execute(...)
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.8.1/command.go:1041
main.main()
        /Users/arnchlm/go/pkg/mod/sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools@v0.17.0/cmd/controller-gen/main.go:200 +0x290
exit status 2

[sbueringer]

@kate-osborn @abhay-krishna This seems to be either the same or similar as #1088 which was fixed just now in #1122.

Can you please check if controller-gen including #1122 works for you?

[abhay-krishna]

@sbueringer Yes indeed, including that commit worked! 🚀 Thank you very much! Will wait for it to be included in a new release to avoid the pseudo-versioning.

controller-gen.kubebuilder.io/version: v0.17.1-0.20250106111415-a7ed77794ca8

[sbueringer]

Perfect, thx for the quick feedback! I'll wait a bit so @kate-osborn has a chance to try it out and then cut a release soon'ish (in a few days)

[abhay-krishna]

Sounds good, thank you very much!

On another note, we are upgrading controller-gen from v0.8.0 to v0.16.5 (a huge bump I know!) and we saw that the generated RBAC role YAML had a large diff with a lot of removals, I wanted to make sure if this is intended behavior.

Also CRD struct fields which were previously (i.e. have always been) marked as required (example) with //+kubebuilder:validation:Required were so far (somehow) not included in the required section of the generated CRD but after the 0.16.5 bump, they did go under the required (above fields after generation), which caused a whole bunch of unit tests to break with validation errors.

Do you have any insights into this?

[sbueringer]

On another note, we are upgrading controller-gen from v0.8.0 to v0.16.5 (a huge bump I know!) and we saw that the generated RBAC role YAML had a large diff with a lot of removals, I wanted to make sure if this is intended behavior.

This is intended. We did multiple iterations of implementing deduplications for RBAC (if you diff the RBAC you'll see that it's only deduplicated)

Also CRD struct fields which were previously (i.e. have always been) marked as required (example) with //+kubebuilder:validation:Required were so far (somehow) not included in the required section of the generated CRD but after the 0.16.5 bump, they did go under the required (above fields after generation), which caused a whole bunch of unit tests to break with validation errors.

This PR implemented support for the +required marker: #944 (in addition to the kubebuilder specific marker). It also included a fix that the markers are evaluated with the right "priority". IIRC somehow "omitempty" was previously prioritized above explicit required markers

[kate-osborn]

@sbueringer #1122 works for me, too! Thanks for the quick response.

[abhay-krishna]

On another note, we are upgrading controller-gen from v0.8.0 to v0.16.5 (a huge bump I know!) and we saw that the generated RBAC role YAML had a large diff with a lot of removals, I wanted to make sure if this is intended behavior.

This is intended. We did multiple iterations of implementing deduplications for RBAC (if you diff the RBAC you'll see that it's only deduplicated)

Also CRD struct fields which were previously (i.e. have always been) marked as required (example) with //+kubebuilder:validation:Required were so far (somehow) not included in the required section of the generated CRD but after the 0.16.5 bump, they did go under the required (above fields after generation), which caused a whole bunch of unit tests to break with validation errors.

This PR implemented support for the +required marker: #944 (in addition to the kubebuilder specific marker). It also included a fix that the markers are evaluated with the right "priority". IIRC somehow "omitempty" was previously prioritized above explicit required markers

@sbueringer Thanks for clarifiying! Looking closer, I did see that they were only being deduplicated by being incorporated into existing lists so avoiding the need for separate sections, which then got removed. Awesome optimizations! Also thanks for the reference to the +required marker implementation. Just a quick question - are the +required and +kubebuilder:validation:Required markers equivalent?

[sbueringer]

Yes they are

[sbueringer]

Just released v0.17.1. Thx for reporting the issue and thx to @mtardy for fixing it! :)

/close