feat(release): add build & publish to release tool

[radTuti]

Description

This adds creating and publishing an operator version. It aligns the process for both a hashrelease operator version and a release operator version. For release operator version, it creates a github release if indicated.

For hashreleases, there is a new enhancement for creating a hashrelease by providing the calico and/or enterprise version in place of the versions file.

For PR reviewers

A note for code reviewers - all pull requests must have the following:

• Milestone set according to targeted release.
• Appropriate labels:
  • kind/bug if this is a bugfix.
  • kind/enhancement if this is a a new feature.
  • enterprise if this PR applies to Calico Enterprise only.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR introduces new build and publish commands to the operator release tooling, unifying the workflow for both release and hashrelease operator versions. It adds support for creating hashreleases by directly specifying Calico/Enterprise versions instead of requiring a versions file, and enables automatic GitHub release creation during the publish process.

Key Changes

• Added build and publish commands that handle both release and hashrelease workflows with consistent patterns
• Enhanced hashrelease creation to accept Calico/Enterprise versions directly via new flags (--calico-version, --enterprise-version, etc.)
• Integrated GitHub release creation into the publish workflow with draft/prerelease support

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 18 out of 19 changed files in this pull request and generated 13 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
hack/release/build.go	New build command implementing image building for releases and hashreleases with version/registry configuration
hack/release/publish.go	New publish command handling image publishing and optional GitHub release creation
hack/release/public.go	New github/public command for creating or updating GitHub releases independently
hack/release/utils.go	Added utility functions for handling trailing slashes, checking prerelease versions, and improved error messages
hack/release/utils_test.go	Added test coverage for new utility functions and updated existing tests with new function signatures
hack/release/github.go	Added GitHub release creation/update methods with draft and prerelease support
hack/release/flags.go	Added new flags for build/publish commands including registry, CRDs directories, and hashrelease-specific options
hack/release/prep.go	Updated to use new utility functions and added support for CRDs directory flags
hack/release/from.go	Updated error messages and modified to use new repository-aware config retrieval
hack/release/releasenotes.go	Added validation for GitHub token and improved output messaging
hack/release/main.go	Registered new build, publish, and public commands
hack/release/README.md	Added comprehensive documentation for new commands with usage examples
RELEASING.md	Updated release process documentation to reflect new tooling workflow
Makefile	Simplified release targets to use new CLI commands
go.mod/go.sum	Added google/go-containerregistry dependency for image registry interactions
.semaphore/release.yml	Updated pipeline name to "Operator Release"
.semaphore/push_images.yml	Renamed block from "Push Images / Maybe Release" to "Push Images"
cmd/main.go	Updated code comment reference to new build.go location

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[danudey]

Attempted to do a build, got some error messaging:

INFO[0000] Building Operator                             arches="[amd64 arm64 ppc64le s390x]" release=true version=v1.42.0
ERROR[0000] make[1]: Entering directory '/home/dan/source/tigera/operator-master'
make var-require REQUIRED_VARS=VERSION-GIT_VERSION FAIL_NOT_SET=true
make[2]: Entering directory '/home/dan/source/tigera/operator-master'
make[2]: 'var-require' is up to date.
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/dan/source/tigera/operator-master'
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/dan/source/tigera/operator-master'  arches="[amd64 arm64 ppc64le s390x]" release=true version=v1.42.0
FATAL[0000] Error running command                         error="building Operator: exit status 2: Makefile:573: *** Attempt to build v1.42.0 from v1.42.0-0.dev-19-ga28a5204246a.  Stop."
make: *** [Makefile:567: release] Error 1

There's no indication of why this is a problem or what to do about it.

Running it again, I now see a different error for some reason:

FATAL[0000] Error running command                         error="building Operator: exit status 2: + uname -m\n+ bash -c 'if [[ \"x86_64\" == \"x86_64\" ]]; then echo amd64; else uname -m; fi'\n+ uname -s\n+ tr A-Z a-z\n+ uname -m\n+ uname -m\n+ echo /home/dan/.local/share/go\n+ cut -d: -f1\n+ id -u dan\n+ echo /home/dan/.local/share/go\n+ cut -d: -f1\n+ find ./pkg -name '*.go'\n+ find ./api -name '*.go'\n+ find ./internal/ -name '*.go'\n+ find ./test -name '*.go'\n+ git describe --tags --dirty --always --abbrev=12\n+ find ./hack/release -type f\n+ find ./hack/gen-versions -type f\n+ ./install-git-hooks\n+ echo '\"'\n+ make var-require REQUIRED_VARS=VERSION-GIT_VERSION FAIL_NOT_SET=true\n+ uname -m\n+ bash -c 'if [[ \"x86_64\" == \"x86_64\" ]]; then echo amd64; else uname -m; fi'\n+ uname -s\n+ tr A-Z a-z\n+ uname -m\n+ uname -m\n+ echo /home/dan/.local/share/go\n+ cut -d: -f1\n+ id -u dan\n+ echo /home/dan/.local/share/go\n+ cut -d: -f1\n+ find ./pkg -name '*.go'\n+ find ./api -name '*.go'\n+ find ./internal/ -name '*.go'\n+ find ./test -name '*.go'\n+ git describe --tags --dirty --always --abbrev=12\n+ find ./hack/release -type f\n+ find ./hack/gen-versions -type f\n+ ./install-git-hooks\n+ echo '\"'\n+ git describe --tags --dirty --always --abbrev=12\n+ git describe --tags --dirty --always --abbrev=12\nMakefile:573: *** Attempt to build v1.42.1 from v1.42.0-0.dev-19-ga28a5204246a.  Stop."

The "error message concatenated with a bunch of literal '\n'" is nearly impossible to read; is it possible to clean these errors up and print them in a more readable way?

[radTuti]

Attempted to do a build, got some error messaging

@danudey what did you run for the build. Also did you follow the readme?

From the logs you included, it seems like you are trying to do a release build on a git hash with no tag. The second go around switched to using v1.42.1 (from v1.42.0) and not sure what you did to get more info in the error. For non-release build, either the --hashrelease flag must be passed or the env var HASHRELEASE=true must be set.

Both attempt have this:

Makefile:573: *** Attempt to build v1.42.1 from v1.42.0-0.dev-19-ga28a5204246a.  Stop.

This indicated that the failure is coming from the Makefile at line 573 which is a check that has existed in the repo since the release process was established.

[radTuti]

The "error message concatenated with a bunch of literal '\n'" is nearly impossible to read; is it possible to clean these errors up and print them in a more readable way?

I have updated the logrus text formatter to disable quote which should stop newlines from being escaped. However I find readablity is based on personal preferences; while I have made some adjustment in this PR, I think any further changes should be added outside of this PR.