pkg/payload: Add Images map and tolerate unknown template fields during upgrades

Add an Images field to manifestRenderConfig, populated from the release
payload's image-references ImageStream. This allows CVO manifests in
/manifests/ to reference component images by short name using Go
template syntax: {{index .Images "component-name"}}.

Make template rendering errors non-fatal during LoadUpdate. When an
older CVO binary loads a newer payload that uses template fields the
older binary does not know about (e.g. .Images), the manifest is
skipped with a warning instead of failing the entire payload load.
The new CVO binary will re-load the full payload after it replaces
the old one at run-level 0.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: jhadvig

pkg/payload/payload.go

@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ func LoadUpdate(dir, releaseImage, excludeIdentifier string, requiredFeatureSet
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	tasks := loadPayloadTasks(releaseDir, cvoDir, releaseImage, profile)
+	tasks := loadPayloadTasks(releaseDir, cvoDir, releaseImage, profile, payload.ImageRef)
 
 	var onlyKnownCaps *configv1.ClusterVersionCapabilitiesStatus
 
@@ -195,7 +195,13 @@ func LoadUpdate(dir, releaseImage, excludeIdentifier string, requiredFeatureSet
 			if task.preprocess != nil {
 				raw, err = task.preprocess(raw)
 				if err != nil {
-					errs = append(errs, fmt.Errorf("preprocess %s: %w", file.Name(), err))
+					// Template rendering may fail when an older CVO binary
+					// loads a newer payload that uses template fields the
+					// older binary does not know about (e.g. .Images). Skip
+					// the manifest with a warning — the new CVO binary will
+					// re-load the full payload after it replaces the old one
+					// at run-level 0.
+					klog.Warningf("Skipping manifest %s: template rendering failed (may require newer CVO): %v", file.Name(), err)
 					continue
 				}
 			}
@@ -317,13 +323,14 @@ type payloadTasks struct {
 	skipFiles  sets.Set[string]
 }
 
-func loadPayloadTasks(releaseDir, cvoDir, releaseImage, clusterProfile string) []payloadTasks {
+func loadPayloadTasks(releaseDir, cvoDir, releaseImage, clusterProfile string, imageRef *imagev1.ImageStream) []payloadTasks {
 	cjf := filepath.Join(releaseDir, cincinnatiJSONFile)
 	irf := filepath.Join(releaseDir, imageReferencesFile)
 
 	mrc := manifestRenderConfig{
 		ReleaseImage:   releaseImage,
 		ClusterProfile: clusterProfile,
+		Images:         imagesFromImageRef(imageRef),
 	}
 
 	return []payloadTasks{{

pkg/payload/render.go

@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/openshift/api/config"
 	configv1 "github.com/openshift/api/config/v1"
+	imagev1 "github.com/openshift/api/image/v1"
 	"github.com/openshift/library-go/pkg/manifest"
 )
 
@@ -38,6 +39,12 @@ func Render(outputDir, releaseImage, clusterVersionManifestPath, featureGateMani
 		}
 	)
 
+	imageRef, err := loadImageReferences(releaseManifestsDir)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("error loading image references for manifest rendering: %w", err)
+	}
+	renderConfig.Images = imagesFromImageRef(imageRef)
+
 	overrides, err := parseClusterVersionManifest(clusterVersionManifestPath)
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("error parsing cluster version manifest: %w", err)
@@ -181,6 +188,21 @@ func renderDir(renderConfig manifestRenderConfig, idir, odir string, overrides [
 type manifestRenderConfig struct {
 	ReleaseImage   string
 	ClusterProfile string
+	Images         map[string]string
+}
+
+// imagesFromImageRef builds a map from image short names to their resolved URIs.
+func imagesFromImageRef(imageRef *imagev1.ImageStream) map[string]string {
+	images := make(map[string]string)
+	if imageRef == nil {
+		return images
+	}
+	for _, tag := range imageRef.Spec.Tags {
+		if tag.From != nil && tag.From.Kind == "DockerImage" {
+			images[tag.Name] = tag.From.Name
+		}
+	}
+	return images
 }
 
 // renderManifest Executes go text template from `manifestBytes` with `config`.