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+# Optional ConfigMaps and Secrets
+
+## Goal
+
+Allow the ConfigMaps or Secrets that are used to populate the environment variables of a
+container and files within a Volume to be optional.
+
+## Use Cases
+
+When deploying an application to multiple environments like development, test,
+and production, there may be certain environment variables that must reflect
+the values that are relevant to said environment. One way to do so would be to
+have a well named ConfigMap which contains all the environment variables
+needed. With the introduction of optional ConfigMaps, one could instead define a required
+ConfigMap which contains all the environment variables for any environment
+with a set of initialized or default values. An additional optional ConfigMap
+can also be specified which allows the deployer to provide any overrides for
+the current environment.
+
+An application developer can populate a volume with files defined from a
+ConfigMap. The developer may have some required files to be created and have
+optional additional files at a different target. The developer can specify on
+the Pod that there is an optional ConfigMap that will provide these additional
+files if the ConfigMap exists.
+
+## Design Points
+
+A container can specify an entire ConfigMap to be populated as environment
+variables via `EnvFrom`. When required, the container fails to start if the
+ConfigMap does not exist. If the ConfigMap is optional, the container will
+skip the non-existant ConfigMap and proceed as normal.
+
+A container may also specify a single environment variable to retrieve its
+value from a ConfigMap via `Env`. If the key does not exist in the ConfigMap
+during container start, the container will fail to start. If however, the
+ConfigMap is marked optional, during container start, a non-existant ConfigMap
+or a missing key in the ConfigMap will not prevent the container from
+starting. Any previous value for the given key will be used.
+
+Any changes to the ConfigMap will not affect environment variables of running
+containers. If the Container is restarted, the set of environment variables
+will be re-evaluated.
+
+The same processing rules applies to Secrets.
+
+A pod can specify a set of Volumes to mount. A ConfigMap can represent the
+files to populate the volume. The ConfigMaps can be marked as optional.  The
+default is to require the ConfigMap existence. If the ConfigMap is required
+and does not exist, the volume creation will fail.  If the ConfigMap is marked
+as optional, the volume will be created regardless, and the files will be
+populated only if the ConfigMap exists and has content.  If the ConfigMap is
+changed, the volume will eventually reflect the new set of data available from
+the ConfigMap.
+
+## Proposed Design
+
+To support an optional ConfigMap either as a ConfigMapKeySelector, ConfigMapEnvSource or a
+ConfigMapVolumeSource, a boolean will be added to specify whether it is
+optional. The default will be required.
+
+To support an optional Secret either as a SecretKeySelector, or a
+SecretVolumeSource, a boolean will be added to specify whether it is optional.
+The default will be required.
+
+### Kubectl updates
+
+The `describe` command will display the additional optional field of the
+ConfigMap and Secret for both the environment variables and volume sources.
+
+### API Resource
+
+A new `Optional` field of type boolean will be added.
+
+```go
+type ConfigMapKeySelector struct {
+  // Specify whether the ConfigMap must be defined
+  // +optional
+	Optional *bool `json:"optional,omitempty" protobuf:"varint,3,opt,name=optional"`
+}
+
+type ConfigMapEnvSource struct {
+  // Specify whether the ConfigMap must be defined
+  // +optional
+	Optional *bool `json:"optional,omitempty" protobuf:"varint,2,opt,name=optional"`
+}
+
+type ConfigMapVolumeSource struct {
+  // Specify whether the ConfigMap must be defined
+  // +optional
+	Optional *bool `json:"optional,omitempty" protobuf:"varint,4,opt,name=optional"`
+}
+
+type SecretKeySelector struct {
+  // Specify whether the ConfigMap must be defined
+  // +optional
+	Optional *bool `json:"optional,omitempty" protobuf:"varint,3,opt,name=optional"`
+}
+
+type SecretVolumeSource struct {
+  // Specify whether the Secret must be defined
+  // +optional
+	Optional *bool `json:"optional,omitempty" protobuf:"varint,4,opt,name=optional"`
+}
+```
+
+### Examples
+
+Optional `ConfigMap` as Environment Variables
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: Pod
+metadata:
+  name: config-env-example
+spec:
+  containers:
+  - name: etcd
+    image: openshift/etcd-20-centos7
+    ports:
+    - containerPort: 2379
+      protocol: TCP
+    - containerPort: 2380
+      protocol: TCP
+    env:
+    - name: foo
+      valueFrom:
+        configMapKeyRef:
+          name: etcd-env-config
+          key: port
+          optional: true
+```
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: Pod
+metadata:
+  name: config-env-example
+spec:
+  containers:
+  - name: etcd
+    image: openshift/etcd-20-centos7
+    ports:
+    - containerPort: 2379
+      protocol: TCP
+    - containerPort: 2380
+      protocol: TCP
+    envFrom:
+    - configMap:
+        name: etcd-env-config
+        optional: true
+```
+
+Optional `ConfigMap` as a VolumeSource
+
+```yaml
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: Pod
+metadata:
+  name: config-env-example
+spec:
+  volumes:
+  - name: pod-configmap-volume
+    configMap:
+      name: configmap-test-volume
+      optional: true
+  containers:
+  - name: etcd
+    image: openshift/etcd-20-centos7
+    ports:
+    - containerPort: 2379
+      protocol: TCP
+    - containerPort: 2380
+      protocol: TCP
+```