Aditya Menon
c63947483c
* fix: eliminate os.Chdir in sequential helmfiles to fix relative path resolution The sequential code path used within() → os.Chdir() to change the process-wide working directory when processing helmfile.d files. This broke relative environment variable paths (e.g. KUBECONFIG=kubeconfig.yaml) because they resolved from the wrong directory after chdir. Replace the chdir-based approach with the same baseDir parameter pattern used by the parallel code path, passing explicit directory context through loadDesiredStateFromYamlWithBaseDir() instead of mutating global process state. Closes #2409 Signed-off-by: Aditya Menon <amenon@canarytechnologies.com> * fix: restore within() for single-file sequential to preserve chart path format The previous approach used baseDir for all sequential processing, which changed chart path format in output (e.g. from "../../../../charts/raw" to "test/integration/charts/raw"). This broke integration tests that compare chart paths in expected output. Now the sequential branch uses two strategies: - Single file: use os.Chdir via within() to preserve backward-compatible relative chart paths in output - Multiple files with --sequential-helmfiles: use baseDir parameter to avoid os.Chdir, fixing relative env var paths like KUBECONFIG (#2409) Signed-off-by: Aditya Menon <amenon@canarytechnologies.com> * fix: revert e2e snapshot outputs to match within() behavior The previous commit restored within() for single-file sequential processing, which produces relative chart paths (e.g. ../../charts/raw) and filename-only FilePath. Revert the e2e snapshot expected outputs to match main branch since single-file behavior is now identical. Signed-off-by: Aditya Menon <amenon@canarytechnologies.com> * fix: restructure integration test for multi-file sequential processing - Point -f at helmfile.d/ directly (not parent dir) so findDesiredStateFiles discovers the yaml files - Add second helmfile to trigger baseDir path (len > 1) - Inline environment config to avoid base file relative path issues - Verify both releases appear in output instead of comparing with parallel (which may differ in ordering) Signed-off-by: Aditya Menon <amenon@canarytechnologies.com> * fix: reduce cognitive complexity and improve accuracy of sequential helmfiles Replace inline visitSubHelmfiles closure with calls to the existing processNestedHelmfiles() method, matching the parallel path. This eliminates duplicated nested logic and reduces gocognit complexity below the CI threshold of 110. Also fixes help text and docs to accurately describe that single-file processing still uses within(), and adds kubeContext verification to the integration test. Signed-off-by: Aditya Menon <amenon@canarytechnologies.com> * test: validate kubeContext resolution in sequential helmfiles integration test Restructure the integration test to replicate the exact user scenario from issue #2409: - Multiple files in helmfile.d/ using bases: with relative paths (../bases/) for environments and defaults - Environment values set kubeContext via .Environment.Values - helmDefaults.kubeContext rendered from gotmpl - Local chart references (../../../../charts/raw) from helmfile.d/ - Run diff against the minikube cluster to exercise kubeContext resolution, which would fail with "context does not exist" if os.Chdir() broke relative path resolution - Also verify template output for both releases and relative values file (values/common.yaml) resolution Fix normalizeChart() in util.go to be idempotent — skip re-prefixing when the chart path already starts with basePath. This prevents double-prefixing of local chart paths (e.g. helmfile.d/test/.../raw) when normalizeChart is called multiple times (once during chart preparation and again during diff/sync). Signed-off-by: Aditya Menon <amenon@canarytechnologies.com> --------- Signed-off-by: Aditya Menon <amenon@canarytechnologies.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.
Getting Started
Let's start with a simple helmfile and gradually improve it to fit your use-case!
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