Broken ApplyConfiguration when embedding an external struct

[piepmatz]

In the following scenario of embedding an external struct the generated applyconfiguration does not compile:

controller-tools versions: v0.19.0, main @ bf7d6b7

api/v1/foo_types.go:

type FooSpec struct {
  corev1.LocalObjectReference `json:",inline"`
}

api/v1/applyconfiguration/api/v1/foospec.go:

func (b *FooSpecApplyConfiguration) WithName(value string) *FooSpecApplyConfiguration {
	b.LocalObjectReference.Name = &value
	return b
}

Error: Cannot use '&value' (type *string) as the type string

Without embedding it works on first glance:

api/v1/foo_types.go:

type FooSpec struct {
  Ref corev1.LocalObjectReference `json:",inline"`
}

api/v1/applyconfiguration/api/v1/foospec.go:

func (b *FooSpecApplyConfiguration) WithRef(value v1.LocalObjectReference) *FooSpecApplyConfiguration {
	b.Ref = &value
	return b
}

However, this combination of not embedding the field but using json:",inline" (to keep the previous CRD schema) generates undesired content when marshaling the spec with encoding/json, as json:",inline" is ignored, making the kube-apiserver emit the warning unknown field "spec.Ref"

[piepmatz]

Maybe somewhat related to #1226 (comment)?