* API fields previously capable of storing and returning either `[]` and `null` via JSON API requests (for example, the Endpoints `subsets` field) can now store only `null` when created using the protobuf content-type or stored in etcd using protobuf serialization (the default in 1.6+). JSON API clients should tolerate `null` values for such fields, and treat `null` and `[]` as equivalent in meaning unless specifically documented otherwise...

## Dependencies

### Added
_Nothing has changed._

### Changed
- github.com/evanphx/json-patch: [162e562 → v4.9.0+incompatible](https://github.com/evanphx/json-patch/compare/162e562...v4.9.0)

### Removed
- github.com/jessevdk/go-flags: [v1.4.0](https://github.com/jessevdk/go-flags/tree/v1.4.0)



# v1.17.11

## Dependencies

### Added
_Nothing has changed._

### Changed
- github.com/evanphx/json-patch: [v5.6.0+incompatible → v4.12.0+incompatible](https://github.com/evanphx/json-patch/compare/v5.6.0...v4.12.0)
- github.com/google/cel-go: [v0.16.0 → v0.16.1](https://github.com/google/cel-go/compare/v0.16.0...v0.16.1)

### Removed
_Nothing has changed._

## Dependencies

### Added
_Nothing has changed._

### Changed
- github.com/evanphx/json-patch: [162e562 → v4.9.0+incompatible](https://github.com/evanphx/json-patch/compare/162e562...v4.9.0)

### Removed
- github.com/jessevdk/go-flags: [v1.4.0](https://github.com/jessevdk/go-flags/tree/v1.4.0)



# v1.18.8

    * If the serialization type is 'application/json':
    * If serialization fails, and the original status code was an failure (e.g. 4xx or 5xx), the original status code will be returned.

- The API server now detects and fails on startup if there are conflicting issuers between...

* Removed comments in json config when using kubectl edit with -o json ([#31685](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/31685), [@jellonek](https://github.com/jellonek))

- the ability to rollback to etcd2 can be preserved by setting the storage media type flag on `kube-apiserver`

  ```
  --storage-media-type application/json
  ```

  to continue to use `application/json` as the storage media type which can be changed to
  `application/vnd.kubernetes.protobuf` at a later time.

## Major updates and release themes

* Fix aggressive VM calls for Azure VMSS ([#83102](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/83102), [@feiskyer](https://github.com/feiskyer))

this is known to affect is curl when you use -d with JSON but don't set a
content type, helpfully sends "application/x-www-urlencoded", which is not
correct.
Other client authors should double check that you are sending proper
accept and content type headers, or set no value (in which case JSON is the
default).
An example using curl:
<code>curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -XPOST -d