yxxhero
c008d0e129
* fix: update helm plugins via uninstall+reinstall to honor pinned version (#2726) helm plugin update re-installs a plugin from its cached source WITHOUT the --version flag, so it does not reliably install the pinned version helmfile requests. It reports success (exit 0) while re-downloading the unchanged cached source, leaving 'helm plugin list' showing the old version. This affected 'helmfile init --force' which reported a successful diff/secrets plugin update while the old version remained installed. The reporter's workaround was to uninstall the plugin before running init. UpdatePlugin now uninstalls the existing plugin and reinstalls the exact pinned version via AddPlugin (which passes --version). The unreliable 'plugin update' command is no longer used for the general path; this mirrors the uninstall+reinstall strategy already used for helm-secrets on Helm 4. Fixes #2726 Refs #2548 Signed-off-by: yxxhero <aiopsclub@163.com> * fix: only ignore 'not found' uninstall errors in UpdatePlugin Address review feedback: UpdatePlugin ignored all uninstall errors, which could mask real failures (permissions, broken Helm) behind a less informative 'plugin already exists' error from the subsequent install. Now only the expected 'not found' case (plugin removed concurrently, reported by both Helm 3 'Plugin: <name> not found' and Helm 4 'plugin: <name> not found') is ignored and install proceeds. Any other uninstall error is returned. Adds tests for both branches. Signed-off-by: yxxhero <aiopsclub@163.com> * fix: extract pluginCmd constant to satisfy goconst in tests golangci-lint (goconst, min-occurrences: 8) flagged the "plugin" string literal in exec_test.go after the new UpdatePlugin tests pushed the package- wide count from 7 (under threshold, passing on main) to 14. Introduce a pluginCmd constant and use it for all helm sub-command checks in the UpdatePlugin tests. No behavior change; drops the literal count back below the threshold so CI goconst passes. Signed-off-by: yxxhero <aiopsclub@163.com> * fix: match helm plugin-absent error precisely; guard against plugin update regression Address review feedback on UpdatePlugin: 1. The uninstall error check used strings.Contains(err, "not found"), which is too broad: it also matches unrelated failures such as a missing helm binary ("executable file not found") or an uninstall hook failing with "sh: ...: not found". Those would be silently treated as "plugin absent" and logged/proceeded past, masking the real problem. Match only helm's specific plugin-absent message instead, via a case-insensitive regex that covers both majors: Helm 4: "plugin: <name> not found" Helm 3: "Plugin: <name> not found" All other uninstall failures (permissions, missing binary, hook errors) are now surfaced. 2. The init test mock had no "plugin update" branch, so a production regression to calling helm plugin update would go undetected (false negative). Add an explicit case that records and fails on "plugin update". Also adds a test for the missing-binary case and makes the plugin-absent test table-driven across Helm 3/4 formats. Extracts installCmd to keep goconst (min-occurrences: 8) satisfied after the new tests. Signed-off-by: yxxhero <aiopsclub@163.com> --------- Signed-off-by: yxxhero <aiopsclub@163.com>
Helmfile
Deploy Kubernetes Helm Charts
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About
Helmfile is a declarative spec for deploying helm charts. It lets you...
- Keep a directory of chart value files and maintain changes in version control.
- Apply CI/CD to configuration changes.
- Periodically sync to avoid skew in environments.
To avoid upgrades for each iteration of helm, the helmfile executable delegates to helm - as a result, the following must be installed
Highlights
Declarative: Write, version-control, apply the desired state file for visibility and reproducibility.
Modules: Modularize common patterns of your infrastructure, distribute it via Git, S3, etc. to be reused across the entire company (See #648)
Versatility: Manage your cluster consisting of charts, kustomizations, and directories of Kubernetes resources, turning everything to Helm releases (See #673)
Patch: JSON/Strategic-Merge Patch Kubernetes resources before helm-installing, without forking upstream charts (See #673)
Status
May 2025 Update
- Helmfile v1.0 and v1.1 has been released. We recommend upgrading directly to v1.1 if you are still using v0.x.
- If you haven't already upgraded, please go over this v1 proposal here to see a small list of breaking changes.
Installation
1: Binary Installation
download one of releases
2: Package Manager
- Archlinux: install via
pacman -S helmfile - openSUSE: install via
zypper in helmfileassuming you are on Tumbleweed; if you are on Leap you must add the kubic repo for your distribution version once before that command, e.g.zypper ar https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/kubic/openSUSE_Leap_\$releasever kubic - Windows (using scoop):
scoop install helmfile - macOS (using homebrew):
brew install helmfile - Linux/macOS/Windows (using mise):
mise use -g helmfile@latest
3: Container
For more details, see run as a container
Make sure to run
helmfile initonce after installation. Helmfile uses the helm-diff plugin.
4: Build from source
requirements: Go
go install github.com/helmfile/helmfile@latest
Getting Started
Let's start with a simple helmfile and gradually improve it to fit your use-case!
Generate a project scaffold with best-practice directory structure:
helmfile create my-project && cd my-project
Or create a helmfile.yaml manually. Suppose the helmfile.yaml representing the desired state of your helm releases looks like:
repositories:
- name: prometheus-community
url: https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
releases:
- name: prom-norbac-ubuntu
namespace: prometheus
chart: prometheus-community/prometheus
set:
- name: rbac.create
value: false
Sync your Kubernetes cluster state to the desired one by running:
helmfile apply
Congratulations! You now have your first Prometheus deployment running inside your cluster.
Iterate on the helmfile.yaml by referencing:
More complex examples
See: multi-env-helmfile
Docs
Please read complete documentation
Contributing
Welcome to contribute together to make helmfile better: contributing doc
Attribution
We use:
- semtag for automated semver tagging. I greatly appreciate the author(pnikosis)'s effort on creating it and their kindness to share it!
Users
Helmfile has been used by many users in production:
For more users, please see: Users