Core Helm Feature

[stevehipwell]

Is there a reason why this isn't a core Helm feature?

[bacongobbler]

Plugins are a good test bed for new features before proposing them as a core feature. Long ago, the scope and use case for a feature like helm whatup was undefined. It was better to iterate upon the use case as a plugin before making this a core feature of helm.

Given the amount of community engagement and usage on this plugin over the past few years since initially written, the use case for helm whatup is quite niche. The plugin was introduced nearly two years ago and hasn't seen much uptake in the community since then.

[stevehipwell]

@bacongobbler - I agree in principal with the plugin as a test bed for new features however in this case I have a couple of observations that I'd be interested in you thoughts on? BTW I think this plugin is great and use it extensively in my workflow.

Observation 1: I'd assume in general that an outdated command would be a core competency of a package manager. Furthermore with the command as part of the core product it would be possible to evolve the capability to support real pain points, such as notifying users when a chart has been flagged as outdated and moved to a new repo.

Observation 2: I'm not sure if the metrics on helm whatup are valid as an indicator of the demand for an outdated command. I remember being disappointed by the lack of a helm outdated command and it taking me quite a while to find helm whatup. As with most plugins this still doesn't work on a Windows machine out of the box (without resorting to WSL) so for a number of users in the corporate world this isn't a working solution.

[bacongobbler]

As with most plugins this still doesn't work on a Windows machine out of the box (without resorting to WSL)

This is something that has to be addressed upstream via helm/helm#7117. Once that work has been implemented by the community, we can look into supporting Windows.

As for the original ask, proposing this plugin as a core feature is not something I am interested in moving forward. helm whatup is a niche use case, and is meant to serve as an assistive tool for a small subset of users rather than a tool for the 1M+ monthly users of Helm. For that reason, this will continue to work as a Helm plugin.

Thanks for your feedback.

[bacongobbler]

I remember being disappointed by the lack of a helm outdated command and it taking me quite a while to find helm whatup

I recall there being a discussion upstream about implementing helm search plugin. If there isn't a ticket available for that feature request, feel free to propose it! I know there has been some level of interest in that topic upstream.

[stevehipwell]

@bacongobbler this is quite possibly a stupid question but what is the intended Helm flow for update discovery? I think this is even more relevent with the decentralisation of charts, although any solution would only have the configured repos as source.

[bacongobbler]

helm dependency update. Same as you would with any other package manager.

[stevehipwell]

I don't think I've explained the issue correctly. I'm looking for the Helm equivalent of apt list --upgradeable or yum check-update. The specific scenario is using Flux to manage cluster configuration and being able to monitor updates and review them.