Fix Reaper not detecting ImagePullBackOff from reason field #2785
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The Reaper was only checking the message field for ImagePullBackOff errors, but Kubernetes actually sets the reason field. This caused pods to not get cleaned up when images failed to pull. Now checks the reason field first, then falls back to message field for backwards compatibility. Fixes jenkinsci#2772
Author
Vlatombe
reviewed
Jan 5, 2026
Comment on lines
-603
to
-605
| return waiting != null | ||
| && waiting.getMessage() != null | ||
| && waiting.getMessage().contains("Back-off pulling image"); |
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Thanks for the review @Vlatombe! Yes, I saw that #772 originally introduced this logic. The issue is that the code only checked the message field, but in some Kubernetes versions, ImagePullBackOff details appear in the reason field first. My fix checks both fields to ensure backward compatibility while catching all ImagePullBackOff scenarios.
Vlatombe
approved these changes
Jan 5, 2026
This was referenced Jan 6, 2026
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The Reaper was only checking the message field for ImagePullBackOff errors, but Kubernetes actually sets the reason field. This caused pods to not get cleaned up when images failed to pull.
Now checks the reason field first, then falls back to message field for backwards compatibility.
Fixes #2772
Testing done
testTerminateAgentOnImagePullBackoffReasonFieldOnly()that reproduces the exact scenario from issue Reaper not terminating pods in ImagePullBackOff state #2772 where only thereasonfield is set to "ImagePullBackOff" (with null message)mvn clean verify -DskipTeststo ensure code compiles and passes all quality checks (Spotless, SpotBugs)reasonfield (primary Kubernetes indicator)messagefield if reason is not setSubmitter checklist