Helm 2.15.0 Released
Tue, Oct 22, 2019
Helm 2.15.0 was released last week. The 2.15.0 release of Helm introduces several improvements to helm test. Several commands - helm search, helm repo list, and helm install - received the --output flag for machine-readable output.
In addition to these new features (and many more!), many bugs and edge cases in Helm continue to fixed by members of the community. Several parts of the codebase have been refactored for easier maintainability, usability, and better testing.
As Helm moves towards Helm 3's first release, Helm 2 is now transitioning into "maintenance mode". Helm 2.15.0 will be the final feature release for Helm 2.
Helm 2 support plan
During the transition, we want to take into account any migration issues for users. We also want to clarify what actions may occur after the support contract ends for Helm 2, so that users will not be surprised or caught off guard.
For Helm 2, we will continue to accept bug fixes and fix any security issues that arise, but no new features will be accepted. All feature development will be moved over to Helm 3.
6 months after Helm 3's public release, Helm 2 will stop accepting bug fixes. Only security issues will be accepted.
12 months after Helm 3's public release, support for Helm 2 will formally end. Download links for the Helm 2 client through Google Cloud Storage, the Docker image for Tiller stored in Google Container Registry, and the Google Cloud buckets for the stable and incubator chart repositories may no longer work at any point. Client downloads through get.helm.sh will continue to work, and we will distribute a Tiller image that will be made available at an alternative location which can be updated with helm init --tiller-image.
The big branch switch
Ever since Helm 3's initial development, the core maintainers and the community have been pushing commits for Helm 3 to the dev-v3 branch, and pushing commits for Helm 2 to the master branch. As Helm 3 now becomes the main development branch for all future work, we decided to switch the main trunk of the Helm repository over to Helm 3's development branch.
With Helm 2 transitioning into maintenance mode, now was a good opportunity to switch branches over.
Earlier this week, the transition was completed with no downtime. Moving forward, bug fixes for Helm 2 should target the dev-v2 branch. Features and bug fixes for Helm 3 should target the master branch.
Parting thoughts
The Helm team would like to thank the community for nearly 3 years of contributions and over 5,000 commits towards Helm 2 since its initial release.
Onwards and upwards!
