Kubernetes resources definitions are placed in the .helm/templates directory and called templates.

This directory contains *.yaml YAML files, arbitrary nested folders are acceptable. Each YAML file describes one or several Kubernetes resources separated by three hyphens ---, for example:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: mydeploy
  labels:
    service: mydeploy
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      service: mydeploy
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        service: mydeploy
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: main
        image: ubuntu:18.04
        command: [ "/bin/bash", "-c", "while true; do date ; sleep 1 ; done" ]
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
  metadata:
    name: mycm
  data:
    node.conf: |
      port 6379
      loglevel notice

Each YAML file is also preprocessed using Go templates.

Using go templates, the user can:

  • generate different Kubernetes resources and their components depending on arbitrary conditions;
  • parameterize templates with values for different environments;
  • extract common text parts, save them as Go templates, and reuse in several places;
  • etc.

You can use Sprig functions and advanced functions such as include and required in addition to basic functions of Go templates.

Also, the user can place *.tpl files into the .helm/templates directory or any subdirectories. These will not be rendered into the Kubernetes object. These files can be used to store Go templates. You can insert templates contained the *.tpl files into the *.yaml files.

Integration with built images

Kubernetes resources needs a full docker image name, including the docker repo and the docker tag, in order to use the docker image in the chart resource specifications. But how do you designate an image contained in the werf.yaml file given that the full docker image name for such an image depends on the specified image repository and werf content based tagging?

werf provides a pack of service values, which contain .Values.werf.image map, which contain mapping of docker images names by werf.yaml image short name. Full description of werf’s service values is available in the values article.

.Values.werf.image

map[string]string

SHORT_IMAGE_NAME => FULL_DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME

This map contains full image name which can be used as a value for image key in the container section of a pod spec.

Examples

To retrieve docker image for an image named backend in the werf.yaml, use:

.Values.werf.image.backend

To retrieve docker image for an image named nginx-assets in the werf.yaml, use:

index .Values.werf.image "nginx-assets"

Here is how you can refer to an image called backend described in werf.yaml:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: backend
  labels:
    service: backend
spec:
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      service: backend
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        service: backend
    spec:
      containers:
      - name: main
        command: [ ... ]
        image: {{ .Values.werf.image.backend }}

Builtin templates and params

  • {{ .Chart.Name }} — contains the [project name] specified in the werf.yaml config or chart name explicitly defined in the .helm/Chart.yaml.
  • {{ .Release.Name }} — contains the [release name]({{ “/advanced/helm/releases/release.html” true_relative_url }}).
  • {{ .Files.Get }} — a function to read file contents into templates; requires the path to file as an argument. The path should be specified relative to the .helm directory (files outside the .helm folder are ignored).

Environment

All main werf commands (such as werf converge, werf build, werf render etc.).

This param could affect release name and kubernetes namespace. Also it is possible to access environment in templates:

{{ .Values.werf.env }}

It is acceptable to use this param in templates to generate different templates for different environments. For example:

{{ if eq .Values.werf.env "dev" }}
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: regsecret
type: kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson
data:
  .dockerconfigjson: UmVhbGx5IHJlYWxseSByZWVlZWVlZWVlZWFhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWFhYWxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGx5eXl5eXl5eXl5eXl5eXl5eXl5eSBsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbG9vb29vb29vb29vb29vb29vb29vb29vb29vb25ubm5ubm5ubm5ubm5ubm5ubm5ubm5ubmdnZ2dnZ2dnZ2dnZ2dnZ2dnZ2cgYXV0aCBrZXlzCg==
---
{{ else }}
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: regsecret
type: kubernetes.io/dockerconfigjson
data:
  .dockerconfigjson: {{ .Values.dockerconfigjson }}
---
{{ end }}

It is important that --env ENV param value available not only in helm templates, but also in werf.yaml templates.

More info about service values available in the article.