Debug and Test Operator SDK in VS Code

If you built a kubernetes operator with Operator-SDK and you need to use environment variables, you will find it difficult to debug and test in VS Code. There are many avenues to debug and test:

1. make run
2. make test
3. VS Code debugger
4. VS Code CodeLens
5. go run
6. go test

.env File

First, we need to centralize all environment variables into a .env file in the project root.

Here is an example of how the .env file should look.

FOO_BAR=barfoo
DEBUG_LEVEL=info
WATCH_NAMESPACE=""

The only caveat is your file must NOT contain any # characters. Makefile uses # for comments and will not play friendly.

godotenv Package

Next, you will add the godotenv package, which reads .env and creates environment variables.

Now, in main.go add to the beginning of the main function

// Set env vars, if available.
godotenv.Load("./.env")

Testing

Using the same approach, you can make a method in a unit test file like this

func before() {
  godotenv.Load("../../.env")
}

Call before() at the beginning of any test that requires environment variables.

VS Code

These changes are necessary to make VS Code CodeLens work. Add this property to .vscode/settings.json

{
  "go.testEnvFile": "${workspaceFolder}/.env"
}

and the envFile property to .vscode/launch.json

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "FooBar",
      "type": "go",
      "request": "launch",
      "mode": "auto",
      "program": "${workspaceFolder}/main.go",
      "envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/.env",
      "args": []
    }
  ]
}

Conclusion

That's it. Now, you can debug and test any way you want. Enjoy!