Don't just set Requeue = true when the reconciliation should be retried

because of error conditions and instead report the error so that
controller-runtime applies exponential back-off to delays between
the retries.

controllers/spaceprovisionerconfig/spaceprovisionerconfig_controller.go

@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ func (r *Reconciler) Reconcile(ctx context.Context, request ctrl.Request) (ctrl.
 	toolchainClusterKey := runtimeclient.ObjectKey{Name: spaceProvisionerConfig.Spec.ToolchainCluster, Namespace: spaceProvisionerConfig.Namespace}
 	toolchainPresent := corev1.ConditionTrue
 	toolchainPresenceReason := toolchainv1alpha1.SpaceProvisionerConfigValidReason
-	requeue := false
+	var reportedError error
 	toolchainPresenceMessage := ""
 	if err := r.Client.Get(ctx, toolchainClusterKey, toolchainCluster); err != nil {
 		if !errors.IsNotFound(err) {
@@ -85,8 +85,8 @@ func (r *Reconciler) Reconcile(ctx context.Context, request ctrl.Request) (ctrl.
 			// that prevents us from reading the ToolchainCluster, clears. I.e. we need the requeue to keep the promise
 			// of eventual consistency.
 
-			requeue = true
-			toolchainPresenceMessage = "failed to get the referenced ToolchainCluster: " + err.Error()
+			reportedError = fmt.Errorf("failed to get the referenced ToolchainCluster: %w", err)
+			toolchainPresenceMessage = reportedError.Error()
 		}
 		toolchainPresenceReason = toolchainv1alpha1.SpaceProvisionerConfigToolchainClusterNotFoundReason
 		toolchainPresent = corev1.ConditionFalse
@@ -101,8 +101,11 @@ func (r *Reconciler) Reconcile(ctx context.Context, request ctrl.Request) (ctrl.
 		})
 
 	if err := r.Client.Status().Update(ctx, spaceProvisionerConfig); err != nil {
-		return ctrl.Result{}, fmt.Errorf("failed to update the SpaceProvisionerConfig status: %w", err)
+		if reportedError != nil {
+			logger.Info("failed to update the status (reported as failed reconciliation) with a previous unreported error during reconciliation", "unreportedError", reportedError)
+		}
+		reportedError = fmt.Errorf("failed to update the SpaceProvisionerConfig status: %w", err)
 	}
 
-	return ctrl.Result{Requeue: requeue}, nil
+	return ctrl.Result{}, reportedError
 }

controllers/spaceprovisionerconfig/spaceprovisionerconfig_controller_test.go

@@ -134,13 +134,12 @@ func TestSpaceProvisionerConfigReEnqueing(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 
 		// when
-		res, reconcileErr := r.Reconcile(context.TODO(), req)
+		_, reconcileErr := r.Reconcile(context.TODO(), req)
 		spcInCluster := &toolchainv1alpha1.SpaceProvisionerConfig{}
 		require.NoError(t, cl.Get(context.TODO(), runtimeclient.ObjectKeyFromObject(spc), spcInCluster))
 
 		// then
-		assert.NoError(t, reconcileErr)
-		assert.True(t, res.Requeue)
+		assert.Error(t, reconcileErr)
 		AssertThat(t, spcInCluster, Is(NotReadyWithReason(toolchainv1alpha1.SpaceProvisionerConfigToolchainClusterNotFoundReason)))
 		assert.Len(t, spcInCluster.Status.Conditions, 1)
 		assert.Equal(t, "failed to get the referenced ToolchainCluster: "+getErr.Error(), spcInCluster.Status.Conditions[0].Message)