Master Helm: Essential Commands for Managing Kubernetes Charts

Overview

Helm is the package manager for Kubernetes. Common operations include:

helm search – search for charts

helm pull – download a chart to a local directory

helm install – upload a chart to Kubernetes

helm list – list released charts # helm --help Official documentation: https://helm.sh/zh/docs/helm/helm/

Helm Repository (helm repo)

Add, list, delete, update, and index chart repositories.

1) Add a chart repository

helm repo add bitnami https://charts.bitnami.com/bitnami

2) List added repositories

helm repo list

3) Update local chart information

helm repo update bitnami

4) Remove a repository

helm repo remove bitnami

Create a Chart (helm create)

Creates a new chart directory with common files.

Example: helm create foo creates a structure like:

$ helm create foo
foo/
├── .helmignore   # patterns to ignore when packaging
├── Chart.yaml    # chart metadata
├── values.yaml   # default values for templates
├── charts/       # dependent charts
└── templates/    # template files
    └── tests/    # test files

Install a Chart (helm install)

Installs a chart package. The chart can be a reference, a packaged chart, an unpacked directory, or a URL.

Override values with --values, --set, --set-string, or --set-file:

helm install -f myvalues.yaml myredis ./redis
helm install --set name=prod myredis ./redis
helm install --set-string long_int=1234567890 myredis ./redis
helm install --set-file my_script=dothings.sh myredis ./redis

Manage Chart Dependencies (helm dependency)

Dependencies are stored in the charts/ directory.

The Chart.yaml file declares dependencies.

Key fields: name (must match the chart name) and version (semantic version or range).

From Helm 2.2.0, repositories can be local paths prefixed with file://:

# Chart.yaml
dependencies:
- name: nginx
  version: "1.2.3"
  repository: "file://../dependency_chart/nginx"

1) List dependencies of a chart

# helm dependency list CHART
helm dependency list wordpress

2) Update dependencies

# helm dependency update CHART
helm dependency update wordpress

List Releases (helm list)

Lists releases in a namespace (default is the current namespace).

By default shows deployed or failed releases; use --uninstalled or --all to modify behavior.

Maximum 256 items returned; --max changes the limit, --max 0 uses the server default.

Pagination is possible with --max and --offset.

# -A shows all
helm list --max=10 --offset=2 -A

Upgrade a Release (helm upgrade)

Upgrades a release to a new chart version. The chart can be a reference, a directory path, a packaged chart, or a URL.

helm upgrade --set foo=bar --set foo=newbar redis ./redis

Release History (helm history)

Retrieves the revision history of a release. By default returns up to 256 revisions; --max adjusts the limit.

Example output:

$ helm history angry-bird
REVISION    UPDATED                     STATUS      CHART           APP VERSION  DESCRIPTION
1           Mon Oct 3 10:15:13 2016    superseded  alpine-0.1.0    1.0          Initial install
2           Mon Oct 3 10:15:13 2016    superseded  alpine-0.1.0    1.0          Upgraded successfully
3           Mon Oct 3 10:15:13 2016    superseded  alpine-0.1.0    1.0          Rolled back to 2
4           Mon Oct 3 10:15:13 2016    deployed    alpine-0.1.0    1.0          Upgraded successfully

Rollback a Release (helm rollback)

Rolls back a release to a previous revision. If the revision number is omitted, it rolls back to the previous version.

# View history first
helm history myharbor -n harbor
# Roll back to a specific revision
helm rollback myharbor 1 -n harbor
# Roll back to the previous revision
helm rollback myharbor -n harbor

Show Chart Details (helm show)

# Show all chart files (values.yaml, Chart.yaml, README)
helm show all mysql
# Show only values.yaml
helm show values mysql

Pull a Chart (helm pull)

Download a chart from a repository, optionally untarring it.

# Download only
helm pull bitnami/redis
# Download and untar
helm pull bitnami/redis --untar

Package a Chart (helm package)

Packs a chart directory into a .tgz archive.

Use --sign, --keyring, and --key to sign the package.

helm package mysql/
# Successfully packaged chart and saved it to: /opt/k8s/helm/mysql-9.3.1.tgz

To ignore files, configure a .helmignore file (supports Unix shell glob patterns):

# .helmignore
.git
*/temp*
*/*/temp*
temp?

Push Chart to Harbor (helm cm-push)

Pushes a chart to a remote repository.

1) Online installation

helm plugin install https://github.com/chartmuseum/helm-push

2) Offline installation

Download the plugin package and extract it into the Helm plugins directory.

# Download package
wget https://github.com/chartmuseum/helm-push/releases/download/v0.10.3/helm-push_0.10.3_linux_amd64.tar.gz
# Extract to plugin path
mkdir /root/.local/share/helm/plugins/helm-push
tar zxvf helm-push_0.10.3_linux_amd64.tar.gz -C /root/.local/share/helm/plugins/helm-push

3) Add Harbor repository

# Add a Harbor repo with credentials and CA file
helm repo add local-harbor --username=admin --password=Harbor12345 https://myharbor.com/chartrepo/bigdata/ --ca-file /opt/k8s/helm/ca.crt

4) Push examples

# Push a directory
helm cm-push mysql/ local-harbor --ca-file /opt/k8s/helm/ca.crt
# Push a packaged chart
helm cm-push wordpress-15.1.5.tgz local-harbor --ca-file /opt/k8s/helm/ca.crt
# Push with a specific version
helm cm-push mychart/ --version="1.2.3" local-harbor --ca-file /opt/k8s/helm/ca.crt
# Force push
helm cm-push --force mychart-0.3.2.tgz local-harbor

Search Hub (helm search hub)

Search charts in Artifact Hub or a private hub instance.

# List all charts
helm search hub
# Search for a specific chart
helm search hub mysql

Search Repositories (helm search repo)

Searches configured repositories for charts matching a keyword, showing the latest stable version (or pre‑release with --devel ).

# Search stable releases for nginx
helm search repo nginx
# Include pre‑release versions
helm search repo nginx --devel
# Search for a specific major version
helm search repo nginx-ingress --version ^1.0.0

Validate a Chart (helm lint)

Runs a series of tests on a chart to verify its format and catch errors or warnings.

# Lint a chart directory
helm lint ./mysql

Common Helm Commands Summary

helm version                     // Show Helm version
helm create xxx                 // Create a new chart named xxx
helm lint ./xxx                 // Check chart for issues
helm install xxx1 ./xxx         // Deploy chart with release name xxx1
helm list                       // List deployed charts
helm history                    // Show release history
helm upgrade                    // Upgrade a release
helm rollback                   // Roll back a release
helm package ./xxx               // Package a chart
helm repo add --username admin --password password myharbor xxx // Add a repo
helm uninstall xxx1             // Uninstall a release
helm pull                       // Pull a chart package
helm cm-push                    // Push a chart package
helm repo update                // Update repository cache
helm search hub                  // Search Artifact Hub for charts
helm search repo                // Search local repositories

Helm common commands (chart installation, upgrade, rollback, uninstall, etc.) are covered above; feel free to leave comments for any questions.