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# Kubernetes Helm
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[](https://circleci.com/gh/kubernetes/helm)
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Helm is a tool for managing Kubernetes charts. Charts are packages of
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pre-configured Kubernetes resources.
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Use Helm to...
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- Find and use popular software packaged as Kubernetes charts
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- Share your own applications as Kubernetes charts
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- Create reproducible builds of your Kubernetes applications
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- Intelligently manage your Kubernetes manifest files
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- Manage releases of Helm packages
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## Helm in a Handbasket
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Helm is a tool that streamlines installing and managing Kubernetes applications.
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Think of it like apt/yum/homebrew for Kubernetes.
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- Helm has two parts: a client (`helm`) and a server (`tiller`)
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- Tiller runs inside of your Kubernetes cluster, and manages releases (installations)
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of your charts.
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- Helm runs on your laptop, CI/CD, or wherever you want it to run.
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- Charts are Helm packages that contain at least two things:
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- A description of the package (`Chart.yaml`)
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- One or more templates, which contain Kubernetes manifest files
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- Charts can be stored on disk, or fetched from remote chart repositories
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(like Debian or RedHat packages)
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## Docs
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- [Quick Start](docs/quickstart.md)
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- [Architechture](docs/architecture.md)
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- [Charts](docs/charts.md)
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- [Chart Repository Guide](docs/chart_repository.md)
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- [Syncing your Chart Repository](docs/chart_repository_sync_example.md)
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- [Developers](docs/developers.md)
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## Install
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Download a [release tarball of helm and tiller for your platform](https://github.com/kubernetes/helm/releases). Unpack the `helm` and `tiller` binaries and add them to your PATH and you are good to go! OS X/[Cask](https://caskroom.github.io/) users can `brew cask install helm`.
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### Install from source
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To install Helm from source, follow this process:
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Make sure you have the prerequisites:
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- Go 1.6
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- A running Kubernetes cluster
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- `kubectl` properly configured to talk to your cluster
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- [Glide](https://glide.sh/) 0.10 or greater with both git and mercurial installed.
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1. [Properly set your $GOPATH](https://golang.org/doc/code.html)
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2. Clone (or otherwise download) this repository into $GOPATH/src/k8s.io/helm
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3. Run `make bootstrap build`
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You will now have two binaries built:
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- `bin/helm` is the client
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- `bin/tiller` is the server
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From here, you can run `bin/helm` and use it to install a recent snapshot of
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Tiller. Helm will use your `kubectl` config to learn about your cluster.
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For development on Tiller, you can locally run Tiller, or you build a Docker
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image (`make docker-build`) and then deploy it (`helm init -i IMAGE_NAME`).
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The [documentation](docs) folder contains more information about the
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architecture and usage of Helm/Tiller.
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## The History of the Project
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Kubernetes Helm is the merged result of [Helm
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Classic](https://github.com/helm/helm) and the Kubernetes port of GCS Deployment
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Manager. The project was jointly started by Google and Deis, though it
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is now part of the CNCF.
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Differences from Helm Classic:
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- Helm now has both a client (`helm`) and a server (`tiller`). The
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server runs inside of Kubernetes, and manages your resources.
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- Helm's chart format has changed for the better:
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- Dependencies are immutable and stored inside of a chart's `charts/`
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directory.
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- Charts are strongly versioned using [SemVer 2](http://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html)
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- Charts can be loaded from directories or from chart archive files
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- Helm supports Go templates without requiring you to run `generate`
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or `template` commands.
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- Helm makes it easy to configure your releases -- and share the
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configuration with the rest of your team.
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- Helm chart repositories now use plain HTTP instead of Git/GitHub.
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There is no longer any GitHub dependency.
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- A chart server is a simple HTTP server
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- Charts are referenced by version
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- The `helm serve` command will run a local chart server, though you
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can easily use object storage (S3, GCS) or a regular web server.
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- And you can still load charts from a local directory.
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- The Helm workspace is gone. You can now work anywhere on your
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filesystem that you want to work.
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