Bash library for linting and testing Helm charts. Comes prepackaged as Docker image for easy use.

chartlib.sh is a Bash library with useful function for linting and testing charts. It is well documented and should be easily usable. The script is meant to be sourced and can be configured via environment variables.

As a convenience, chart_test.sh is provided. It supports linting and testing charts that have changed against a target branch.

It is recommended to use the provided Docker image which can be found on Quay. It comes with all necessary tools installed.

• Bash 4.4 (https://tiswww.case.edu/php/chet/bash/bashtop.html)
• Helm (http://helm.sh)
• yq (https://github.com/kislyuk/yq)
• vert (https://github.com/Masterminds/vert)
• yamllint (https://github.com/adrienverge/yamllint)
• yamale (https://github.com/23andMe/Yamale)
• kubectl (https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/overview/)
• Tooling for your cluster

Note that older Bash versions may not work!

Clone the repository and add it to the PATH. The script must be run in the root directory of a Git repository.

$ chart_test.sh --help
Usage: chart_test.sh <options>
    Lint, install, and test Helm charts.
    -h, --help        Display help
    --verbose         Display verbose output
    --no-lint         Skip chart linting
    --no-install      Skip chart installation
    --all             Lint/install all charts
    --charts          Lint/install:
                        a standalone chart (e. g. stable/nginx)
                        a list of charts (e. g. stable/nginx,stable/cert-manager)
    --config          Path to the config file (optional)
    --                End of all options

The following environment variables can be set to configure chartlib.sh. Note that this must be done before the script is sourced.

Note that CHART_DIRS, EXCLUDED_CHARTS, and CHART_REPOS must be configured as Bash arrays.

The library is meant to be used for linting and testing pull requests. It automatically detects charts changed against the target branch. The environment variables mentioned in the configuration section above can be set in a config file for chart_test.sh.

By default, changes are detected against origin/master. Depending on your CI setup, it may be necessary to configure and fetch a separate remote for this.

REMOTE=myremote

git remote add myremote <repo_url></repo_url>
git fetch myremote
chart-test.sh

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/workdir" --workdir /workdir quay.io/helmpack/chart-testing:v1.1.0 chart_test.sh --no-install --config .mytestenv

Sample Output

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Environment:
REMOTE=k8s
TARGET_BRANCH=master
CHART_DIRS=stable
EXCLUDED_CHARTS=
CHART_REPOS=
TIMEOUT=600
LINT_CONF=/testing/etc/lintconf.yaml
CHART_YAML_SCHEMA=/testing/etc/chart_schema.yaml
VALIDATE_MAINTAINERS=true
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Charts to be installed and tested: stable/dummy
Initializing Helm client...
Creating /home/testing/.helm
Creating /home/testing/.helm/repository
Creating /home/testing/.helm/repository/cache
Creating /home/testing/.helm/repository/local
Creating /home/testing/.helm/plugins
Creating /home/testing/.helm/starters
Creating /home/testing/.helm/cache/archive
Creating /home/testing/.helm/repository/repositories.yaml
Adding stable repo with URL: https://kubernetes-charts.storage.googleapis.com
Adding local repo with URL: http://127.0.0.1:8879/charts
$HELM_HOME has been configured at /home/testing/.helm.
Not installing Tiller due to 'client-only' flag having been set
Happy Helming!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Processing chart 'stable/dummy'...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Validating chart 'stable/dummy'...
Checking chart 'stable/dummy' for a version bump...
Unable to find chart on master. New chart detected.
Linting 'stable/dummy/Chart.yaml'...
Linting 'stable/dummy/values.yaml'...
Validating Chart.yaml
Validating /workdir/stable/dummy/Chart.yaml...
Validation success! 👍
Validating maintainers
Verifying maintainer 'unguiculus'...
Using custom values file 'stable/dummy/ci/ci-values.yaml'...
Linting chart 'stable/dummy'...
==> Linting stable/dummy
[INFO] Chart.yaml: icon is recommended

1 chart(s) linted, no failures
Done.

You can lint all charts with --all flag (chart version bump check will be ignored):

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/workdir" --workdir /workdir quay.io/helmpack/chart-testing:v1.1.0 chart_test.sh --no-install --config .mytestenv --all

You can lint a list of charts (separated by comma) with --charts flag (chart version bump check will be ignored):

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/workdir" --workdir /workdir quay.io/helmpack/chart-testing:v1.1.0 chart_test.sh --no-install --config .mytestenv --charts stable/nginx,stable/cert-manager

You can lint a single chart with --charts flag (chart version bump check will be ignored):

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/workdir" --workdir /workdir quay.io/helmpack/chart-testing:v1.1.0 chart_test.sh --no-install --config .mytestenv --charts stable/nginx

Installing a chart requires access to a Kubernetes cluster. You may have to create your own Docker image that extends from quay.io/helmpack/chart-testing:v1.1.0 in order to install additional tools (e. g. google-cloud-sdk for GKE). A container from such an image could run steps to authenticate to a Kubernetes cluster, where it initializes the kubectl context, before running chart_test.sh.

Charts are installed into newly created namespaces that will be deleted again afterwards. By default, they are named by the chart, which may not be a good idea, especially when multiple PR jobs could be running for the same chart. chart_lib.sh looks for an environment variable BUILD_ID and uses it to name the namespace. Make sure you set it based on the pull request number.

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/workdir" --workdir /workdir quay.io/helmpack/chart-testing:v1.1.0 chart_test.sh --no-lint --config .mytestenv

You can force to install all charts with --all flag:

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/workdir" --workdir /workdir quay.io/helmpack/chart-testing:v1.1.0 chart_test.sh --no-lint --config .mytestenv --all

You can force to install a list of charts (separated by comma) with --charts flag:

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/workdir" --workdir /workdir quay.io/helmpack/chart-testing:v1.1.0 chart_test.sh --no-lint --config .mytestenv --charts stable/nginx,stable/cert-manager

You can force to install one chart with --charts flag:

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/workdir" --workdir /workdir quay.io/helmpack/chart-testing:v1.1.0 chart_test.sh --no-lint --config .mytestenv --charts stable/nginx

An example for GKE is available in the examples/gke directory. A custom Dockerfile additionally installs the google-cloud-sdk and a custom shell script puts everything together.

An example for Docker for Mac is available in the examples/docker-for-mac directory. This script can be run as is in the charts repo. Make sure Show system containers is active for Docker's Kubernetes distribution, so the script can find the API server and configure kubectl so it can access the API server from within the container.