# README
Feature Gates
Feature gates allow users to enable or disable certain features by setting the "PGO_FEATURE_GATES" environment variable to a list similar to "feature1=true,feature2=false,..." in the PGO Deployment.
This capability leverages the relevant Kubernetes packages. Documentation and code implementation examples are given below.
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Documentation:
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Package Information:
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Adding the feature gate key:
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Adding the feature gate to the known features map:
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Adding features to the featureGate
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Setting the feature gates
Developing with Feature Gates in PGO
To add a new feature gate, a few steps are required. First, in
internal/util/features.go, you will add a feature gate key name. As an example,
for a new feature called 'FeatureName', you would add a new constant and comment
describing what the feature gate controls at the top of the file, similar to
// Enables FeatureName in PGO
FeatureName featuregate.Feature = "FeatureName"
Next, add a new entry to the pgoFeatures map
var pgoFeatures = map[featuregate.Feature]featuregate.FeatureSpec{
FeatureName: {Default: false, PreRelease: featuregate.Alpha},
}
where FeatureName is the constant defined previously, Default: false sets the
default behavior and PreRelease: featuregate.Alpha. The possible PreRelease
values are Alpha, Beta, GA and Deprecated.
By Kubernetes convention, Alpha features have almost always been disabled by
default. Beta features are generally enabled by default.
Prior to Kubernetes 1.24, both Beta features and APIs were enabled by default.
Starting in v1.24, new Beta APIs are generally disabled by default, while Beta
features remain enabled by default.
- https://kubernetes.io/blog/2021/07/14/upcoming-changes-in-kubernetes-1-22/#kubernetes-api-removals
- https://kubernetes.io/blog/2022/05/03/kubernetes-1-24-release-announcement/#beta-apis-off-by-default
- https://github.com/kubernetes/enhancements/tree/master/keps/sig-architecture/3136-beta-apis-off-by-default#goals
For consistency with Kubernetes, we recommend that feature-gated features be
configured as Alpha and disabled by default. Any Beta features added should
stay consistent with Kubernetes practice and be enabled by default, but we should
keep an eye out for changes to these standards and adjust as needed.
Once the above items are set, you can then use your feature gated value in the code base to control feature behavior using something like
if util.DefaultMutableFeatureGate.Enabled(util.FeatureName)
To test the feature gate, set the PGO_FEATURE_GATES environment variable to
enable the new feature as follows
PGO_FEATURE_GATES="FeatureName=true"
Note that for more than one feature, this variable accepts a comma delimited list, e.g.
PGO_FEATURE_GATES="FeatureName=true,FeatureName2=true,FeatureName3=true"
While PGO_FEATURE_GATES does not have to be set, please note that the features
must be defined before use, otherwise PGO deployment will fail with the
following message
panic: unable to parse and store configured feature gates. unrecognized feature gate
Also, the features must have boolean values, otherwise you will see
panic: unable to parse and store configured feature gates. invalid value
When dealing with tests that do not invoke cmd/postgres-operator/main.go, keep
in mind that you will need to ensure that you invoke the AddAndSetFeatureGates
function. Otherwise, any test that references the undefined feature gate will fail
with a panic message similar to
"feature "FeatureName" is not registered in FeatureGate"
To correct for this, you simply need a line similar to
err := util.AddAndSetFeatureGates("")