Helm Plugin (`helm/v1-alpha`)

The Helm plugin is an optional plugin that can be used to scaffold a Helm chart, allowing you to distribute the project using Helm.

By default, users can generate a bundle with all the manifests by running the following command:

make build-installer IMG=<some-registry>/<project-name:tag>

This allows the project consumer to install the solution by applying the bundle with:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/<org>/project-v4/<tag or branch>/dist/install.yaml

However, in many scenarios, you might prefer to provide a Helm chart to package your solution. If so, you can use this plugin to generate the Helm chart under the dist directory.

When to use it

If you want to provide a Helm chart for users to install and manage your project.
If you need to update the Helm chart generated under dist/chart/ with the latest project changes:
- After generating new manifests, use the edit option to sync the Helm chart.
- IMPORTANT: If you have created a webhook or an API using the DeployImage plugin, you must run the edit command with the --force flag to regenerate the Helm chart values based on the latest manifests (after running make manifests) to ensure that the HelmChart values are updated accordingly. In this case, if you have customized the files under dist/chart/values.yaml, and the templates/manager/manager.yaml, you will need to manually reapply your customizations on top of the latest changes after regenerating the Helm chart.

How to use it ?

Basic Usage

The Helm plugin is attached to the init subcommand and the edit subcommand:


# Initialize a new project with helm chart
kubebuilder init --plugins=helm/v1-alpha

# Enable or Update the helm chart via the helm plugin to an existing project
# Before run the edit command, run `make manifests` to generate the manifest under `config/`
make manifests
kubebuilder edit --plugins=helm/v1-alpha

Use the edit command to update the Helm Chart with the latest changes

After making changes to your project, ensure that you run make manifests and then use the command kubebuilder edit --plugins=helm/v1-alpha to update the Helm Chart.

Note that the following files will not be updated unless you use the --force flag:

  dist/chart/
  ├── values.yaml
  └── templates/
      └── manager/
          └── manager.yaml

The files chart/Chart.yaml, chart/templates/_helpers.tpl, and chart/.helmignore are never updated after their initial creation unless you remove them.

Subcommands

The Helm plugin implements the following subcommands:

edit ($ kubebuilder edit [OPTIONS])
init ($ kubebuilder init [OPTIONS])

Affected files

The following scaffolds will be created or updated by this plugin:

dist/chart/*