- Kubeadm: make sure the etcd static pod startup probe uses /health?serializable=false while the liveness probe uses /health?serializable=true&exclude=NOSPACE. The NOSPACE exclusion would allow administrators to address space issues one member at a time. ([#110744](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/110744), [@neolit123](https://github.com/neolit123)) [SIG Cluster Lifecycle]

- Fixes regression in CPUManager that caused freeing of exclusive CPUs at incorrect times ([#90377](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/90377), [@cbf123](https://github.com/cbf123)) [SIG Cloud Provider and Node]

### API Change

- '`kube-apiserver`: adds `--authentication-config` flag for reading `AuthenticationConfiguration`
  files. `--authentication-config` flag is mutually exclusive with the existing `--oidc-*`
  flags.' ([#119142](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/119142), [@aramase](https://github.com/aramase))

- Fixed a bug in the exclusive assignment availability check for the `InPlacePodVerticalScalingExclusiveCPUs` feature gate. ([#130559](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/130559), [@esotsal](https://github.com/esotsal))

* The CRD OpenAPI v3 specification for validation now allows `additionalProperties`, which are mutually exclusive to properties. ([#62333](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/62333), [@sttts](https://github.com/sttts))

- Alowed useful inclusion of `-args $prog_args` in KUBE_TEST_ARGS, when doing `make test-integration`. ([#107516](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/107516), [@MikeSpreitzer](https://github.com/MikeSpreitzer))

  Server-side apply now considers `.spec.defaultBackend` to be an atomic struct.  This means that any field-owner who sets values in that struct (they are mutually exclusive) owns the whole struct. For almost all users this change has no impact; for controllers that want to change the default backend port from number to name (or vice-versa), this makes it easier. ([#126207](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/126207),...

  2. The `--node-cidr-mask-size` flag is mutually exclusive with `--node-cidr-mask-size-ipv4` and `--node-cidr-mask-size-ipv6`.

- Very large patches may now be specified to `kubectl patch` with the `--patch-file` flag instead of including them directly on the command line. The `--patch` and `--patch-file` flags are mutually exclusive. ([#93548](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/93548), [@smarterclayton](https://github.com/smarterclayton)) [SIG CLI]

    * Implements subPathExpr field for expanding environment variables into a subPath
    * The fields subPathExpr and subPath are mutually exclusive
    * Note: This is a breaking change from the previous version of this alpha feature