From 328ea56e7530c057d54d57e3b719bc643227288c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Dan Williams <dcbw@redhat.com>
Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2017 13:26:14 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] docs: CNI versioning for 0.3.0 upgrade

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 Documentation/spec-upgrades.md | 101 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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 create mode 100644 Documentation/spec-upgrades.md

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+# CNI Plugin Versions, Compatibility, and Writing Plugins
+
+## Specification Changes between CNI Specification Versions 0.2.0 and
+0.3.0
+
+Plugins which conform to the CNI 0.3.0 specification may elect to
+return more expressive IPAM JSON that is not compatible with earlier
+specification versions.  This requires updates to plugins that wish to
+conform to the 0.3.0 specification. It **does not** require updates to
+plugins that wish to only implement the 0.2.0 and earlier
+specifications.
+
+## Multi-version Compatible Plugins
+
+Plugins can also choose to support multiple CNI versions. The plugin is
+expected to return IPAM output conforming to the CNI specification
+version passed in the plugin's configuration on stdin in the
+`cniVersion` key. If that key is not present, then CNI specification
+version 0.2.0 should be assumed and 0.2.0 conforming JSON returned.
+Plugins should return all CNI specification versions they are
+compatible with when given the `VERSION` command, so runtimes can
+determine each plugins capabilities.
+
+For example, if the plugin advertises only CNI specification version
+0.2.0 support and receives a `cniVersion` key of "0.3.0" the plugin
+must return an error. If the plugin advertises CNI specification
+support for 0.2.0 and 0.3.0, and receives `cniVersion` key of "0.2.0",
+the plugin must return IPAM JSON conforming to the CNI specification
+version 0.2.0.
+
+## libcni API and Go Types Changes in 0.3.0
+
+With the 0.5.0 CNI reference plugins and libcni release a number of
+important changes were made that affect both runtimes and plugin
+authors. These changes make it easier to enhance the libcni and plugin
+interfaces going forward. The largest changes are to the `types`
+package, which now contains multiple versions of libcni types. The
+`current` package contains the latest types, while types compatible
+with previous libcni releases will be placed into versioned packages
+like `types020` (representing the libcni types that conform to the CNI
+specification version 0.2.0).
+
+The `Result` type is now an interface instead of a plain struct. The
+interface has new functions to convert the Result structure between
+different versions of the libcni types. Plugins and consumers of libcni
+should generally be written to use the Go types of the latest libcni
+release, and convert between the latest libcni types and the CNI
+specification type they are passed in the `cniVersion` key of plugin
+configuration.
+
+### Plugins
+
+For example, say your plugins supports both CNI specification version
+0.2.0 and 0.3.0. Your plugin receives configuration with a `cniVersion`
+key of "0.2.0".  This means your plugin should return an IPAM structure
+conforming to the CNI specification version 0.2.0. The easiest way to
+code your plugin is to always use the most current libcni Result type
+(from the `current` package) and then immediately before exiting,
+convert that result to the requested CNI specification version result
+(eg, `types020`) and print it to stdout.
+
+```
+import "github.com/containernetworking/cni/pkg/types"
+import "github.com/containernetworking/cni/pkg/types/current"
+
+result := &current.Result{}
+<<< populate result here >>>
+return types.PrintResult(result, << CNI version from stdin net
+config>>)
+```
+
+or if your plugin internally runs IPAM and needs to process the result:
+
+```
+import "github.com/containernetworking/cni/pkg/types"
+import "github.com/containernetworking/cni/pkg/types/current"
+
+ipamResult, err := ipam.ExecAdd(n.IPAM.Type, args.StdinData)
+result, err := current.NewResultFromResult(ipamResult)
+<<< manipulate result here >>>
+return types.PrintResult(result, << CNI version from stdin net
+config>>)
+```
+
+### Runtimes
+
+Since libcni functions like AddNetwork() now return a Result interface
+rather than a plain structure, only a single additional step is
+required to convert that object to a structure you can manipulate
+internally. Runtimes should code to the most current Go types provided
+by the libcni they vendor into their sources, and can convert from
+whatever IPAM result version the plugin provides to the most current
+version like so:
+
+```
+resultInterface, err := cninet.AddNetwork(netconf, rt)
+<<< resultInterface could wrap an object of any CNI specification
+version >>>
+realResult := current.NewResultFromResult(resultInterface)
+<<< realResult is a struct, not an interface >>>
+```