Patching Software with GitOps, Helm, and Argo CD

This is a minor upgrade. Major upgrades are harder.

Argo CD deploys whatever is on main.

1. Pull the repo and open a new branch.

   cd ~/git/forgejo
   git pull
   git switch -c ariadne/forgejo-17.3.2
   

2. Render the current chart and build an old template with Helm.

   helm dependency build chart
   helm template forgejo chart -n forgejo > forgejo-old.yaml
   

3. Change the software version (this is the upgrade step).

   sed -i 's/version: 17.1.1/version: 17.3.2/' chart/Chart.yaml
   

4. Render the updated chart and build a new template with Helm.

   helm dependency update chart
   helm template forgejo chart -n forgejo > forgejo-new.yaml
   

5. Diff the templates

   This is a sanity check step, Helm requires new Chart.yaml, and Chart.lock files.

   diff forgejo-old.yaml forgejo-new.yaml | less
   

6. Removed the templates

   These don’t get deployed, only checked.

   rm forgejo-old.yaml 
   rm forgejo-new.yaml
   

7. Commit Chart.yaml, and Chart.lock

   git add chart/Chart.yaml chart/Chart.lock
   git commit -m "Minor upgrade: Forgejo 15.0.3 to 15.0.11"
   git push -u origin ariadne/forgejo-17.3.2
   

8. Open a PR (or merge to main)

   Fast-forward … I’ll merge into main on my own repo.

   git fetch origin
   git checkout main && git pull --ff-only
   git merge --ff-only origin/ariadne/forgejo-17.3.2
   git push origin main
   

9. Check kubectl to see if it deployed.

   !
   ! Skip the wait with refresh=hard
   !
   kubectl -n argocd annotate app forgejo argocd.argoproj.io/refresh=hard --overwrite
   kubectl -n argocd get app forgejo -w
   kubectl -n forgejo rollout status deploy/forgejo
   

Rolling back

git revert HEAD
git push origin main

References

Helm

Helm Dependency Update

Forgejo Helm Chart