Enhance kubectl command to be more magit like

[DamianB-BitFlipper]

Summary

Major UX and error handling improvements to kubel, including better navigation, improved error visibility, GKE authentication support, and performance optimizations.

Key Changes

Error Handling & Visibility

• Added header error overlay system - errors now display prominently at the top of the buffer with a clear warning indicator
• Improved stderr handling with dedicated buffer and logging to process buffer
• Added automatic GKE authentication error detection with prompt to run gcloud auth login

Navigation & Buffer Management

• Introduced parent buffer tracking for hierarchical navigation (q now returns to parent buffer)
• New kubel-list-namespaces command (y) to browse namespaces as a resource list
• kubel-go-back replaces basic quit behavior with smart parent navigation
• Added kubel-kill-all-buffers command (Q) to clean up all kubel buffers

Namespace & Context Handling

• Context namespace caching via kubel--context-namespace-cache to reduce kubectl calls
• New kubel-set-context-default-namespace command (N) to persist namespace preference in kubectl config
• Context now lazily initialized on first use (was eagerly loaded at variable definition)
• When switching contexts, automatically loads the context's default namespace

Selection & Marking UX

• Mark/unmark now preserves cursor position and advances to next line (dired-like behavior)
• Selected items now display with dired-marked face across entire row via custom print entry function
• Mark/unmark operations use tabulated-list-print for efficient partial redraws instead of full refresh

Internal Refactoring

• Renamed kubel--exec-to-string → kubel--exec-sync with improved semantics
• Renamed kubel--exec → kubel--exec-async for clarity
• Resource details buffers now open in same window (pop-to-buffer-same-window)
• Process buffer display uses display-buffer-below-selected for better layout

New Keybindings

• y - List namespaces
• N - Set context default namespace
• q - Go back to parent buffer
• Q - Kill all kubel buffers
• C-c o K - Global keybinding for launching kubel (via new kubel-global-mode)

[DamianB-BitFlipper]

unsure why CI is failing with Package emacs-28.1' is unavailable. Exited with code exit status 255`. This doesn't seem related to my code.

[CsBigDataHub]

waiting for this forever

q - Go back to parent buffer
Q - Kill all kubel buffers

should close #36

Hi @abrochard, any chance of getting this pushed, thank you.

[DamianB-BitFlipper]

Love to see it is useful to someone else ❤️

[CsBigDataHub]

Hello @DamianB-BitFlipper , I tested your code, I use kubel-evil and I get this error just by calling M-x kubel

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (void-variable kubel-log-popup:--tail)
  byte-code("\306\10\307\310\311\312\313\314\315\316\317&\n\210\320\11\307\321\322\323%\210\320\n\307\324\325$\210\320\13\307\326\327\330%\210\320\f\307\331\332\333%\210\320\15\307\334\335$\207" [kubel-log-popup:--tail kubel-log-popup kubel-copy-popup kubel-delete-popup kubel-describe-popup kubel-help-popup define-infix-argument nil :description "Tail" :class transient-option :shortarg "-n" :argument "--tail=" define-transient-command "Kubel Log Menu" ["Arguments" ("-f" "Follow" "-f") ("-p" "Previous" "-p") (kubel-log-popup:--tail)] ["Actions" ("l" "Tail pod logs" kubel-get-pod-logs)] "Kubel Copy Menu" ["Actions" ("c" "Copy pod name" kubel-copy-pod-name) ("l" "Copy pod log command" kubel-copy-log-command) ("p" "Copy command prefix" kubel-copy-command-prefix)] "Kubel Delete menu" ["Arguments" ("-f" "Force" "--force --grace-period=0")] ["Actions" ("k" "Delete pod" kubel-delete-pod)] "Kubel Describe Menu" ["Arguments" ("-y" "Yaml" "-o yaml")] ["Actions" ("d" "Deployment" kubel-describe-deployment) ("s" "Service" kubel-describe-service) ("j" "Job" kubel-describe-job) ("i" "Ingress" kubel-describe-ingress) ("c" "Configmap" kubel-describe-configmaps)] "Kubel Menu" ["Actions" ("ENTER" "Pod details" kubel-get-pod-details) ("C" "Set context" kubel-set-context) ("n" "Set namespace" kubel-set-namespace) ("g" "Refresh" kubel-mode) ("p" "Port forward" kubel-port-forward-pod) ("l" "Logs" kubel-log-popup) ("c" "Copy" kubel-copy-popup) ("d" "Describe" kubel-describe-popup) ("e" "Exec" kubel-exec-pod) ("k" "Delete" kubel-delete-popup) ("j" "Jab" kubel-jab-deployment)]] 11)
  command-execute(kubel record)
  #<subr execute-extended-command>(nil "kubel" "kube")
  apply(#<subr execute-extended-command> (nil "kubel" "kube"))
  execute-extended-command(nil "kubel" "kube")
  funcall-interactively(execute-extended-command nil "kubel" "kube")
  command-execute(execute-extended-command)

[abrochard]

Hi @DamianB-BitFlipper , sorry for the delay and thank you for submitting this!

Several points:

1. I don't use k8s in my day to day anymore so testing is a bit of a hassle, so it will take some time to review carefully (thank you @CsBigDataHub for testing it in the meantime)
2. That's a lot of code and commits that do a lot of different things. If you are so inclined, it would be preferable to break up into smaller per-feature PR (also will help identify & revert if a bug is detected)
3. I will look into the CI. It's unrelated from your code

[DamianB-BitFlipper]

I made a bunch of PRs: https://github.com/DamianB-BitFlipper/kubel/pulls?q=sort%3Aupdated-desc+is%3Apr+is%3Aopen

and the first one in to your master is: #154

We can merge them in from my fork in to yours one by one if they pass your QA.

[abrochard]

I made a bunch of PRs: https://github.com/DamianB-BitFlipper/kubel/pulls?q=sort%3Aupdated-desc+is%3Apr+is%3Aopen

and the first one in to your master is: #154

We can merge them in from my fork in to yours one by one if they pass your QA.

Thank you very much! I reviewed and approved the first one