Helm List Images Plugin

This helm plugins helps in identifying all images that would be part of helm chart deployment.

Introduction

Identifying all images just before the deployment of the helm chart is not a straightforward task.

To make it simple, the helm plugin is leveraged. This can be installed as an add-on to the helm.

It helps in filtering images based on the Kubernetes type. It also helps in filtering images based on a registry which it is part of.

helm list-images ~/prometheus-setup/prometheus-standalone -f ~/prometheus-setup/prometheus-standalone/values-standalone-1.yaml
# executing above command would yield results something like below:
quay.io/prometheus/node-exporter:v1.1.2
k8s.gcr.io/kube-state-metrics/kube-state-metrics:v2.0.0
quay.io/prometheus/alertmanager:v0.21.0
prom/pushgateway:v1.3.1
jimmidyson/configmap-reload:v0.5.0
quay.io/prometheus/alertmanager:v0.21.0

# using the same plugin can list images which are part of specified release
helm list-images prometheus-standalone --from-release --registry quay.io
# above command should fetch all the images from a helm release 'prometheus-standalone' by limiting to registry 'quay.io', which results as below:
quay.io/prometheus/alertmanager:v0.21.0
quay.io/prometheus/alertmanager:v0.21.0

Installation

helm plugin install https://github.com/d2iq-labs/helm-list-images

Use the executable just like any other go-cli application.

Usage

helm list-images [command] [flags]

Make sure appropriate command is used for the actions, to check the available commands and flags use helm list-images --help

Lists all images that would be part of helm deployment.

Usage:
  list-images [command] [flags]

Available Commands:
  completion  Generate the autocompletion script for the specified shell
  get         Fetches all images those are part of specified chart/release
  help        Help about any command
  version     Command to fetch the version of helm-list-images installed

Flags:
  -h, --help                     help for images
      --set stringArray          set values on the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=val1,key2=val2)
      --set-file stringArray     set values from respective files specified via the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=path1,key2=path2)
      --set-string stringArray   set STRING values on the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=val1,key2=val2)
  -f, --values ValueFiles        specify values in a YAML file (can specify multiple) (default [])


Use "list-images [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Commands

get

Lists all images those are part of specified chart/release and matches the pattern or part of specified registry.

Usage:
  list-images [RELEASE] [CHART] [flags]

Examples:
  helm list-images prometheus-standalone path/to/chart/prometheus-standalone -f ~/path/to/override-config.yaml
  helm list-images prometheus --repository-url https://prometheus-community.github.io/helm-charts
  helm list-images prometheus-standalone --from-release --registry quay.io
  helm list-images prometheus-standalone --from-release --registry quay.io --unique
  helm list-images prometheus-standalone --from-release --registry quay.io --yaml

Flags:
     --chart-version string            specify a version constraint for the chart version to use. This constraint can be a specific tag (e.g. 1.1.1) or it may reference a valid range (e.g. ^2.0.0). If this is not specified, the latest versionis used
      --extra-images-file stringArray   optional Helm template files to derive extra images from
      --from-release                    enable the flag to fetch the images from release instead (disabled by default)
  -h, --help                            help for list-images
      --image-regex string              regex used to split helm template rendered (default "---\\n# Source:\\s.*.")
      --include-test-images             include images required for Helm tests
  -j, --json                            enable the flag to display images retrieved in json format (disabled by default)
  -k, --kind strings                    kubernetes app kind to fetch the images from (default [Deployment,StatefulSet,DaemonSet,CronJob,Job,ReplicaSet,Pod,Alertmanager,Prometheus,ThanosRuler,Grafana,Thanos,Receiver])
      --kube-version string             Kubernetes version used for Capabilities.KubeVersion when rendering charts (default "1.29.0")
  -l, --log-level string                log level for the plugin helm list-images (defaults to info) (default "info")
  -r, --registry strings                registry name (docker images belonging to this registry)
      --repo string                     chart repository url where to locate the requested chart
      --set stringArray                 set values on the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=val1,key2=val2)
      --set-file stringArray            set values from respective files specified via the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=path1,key2=path2)
      --set-json stringArray            set JSON values on the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=jsonval1,key2=jsonval2)
      --set-literal stringArray         set a literal STRING value on the command line
      --set-string stringArray          set STRING values on the command line (can specify multiple or separate values with commas: key1=val1,key2=val2)
  -s, --sort                            enable the flag to sort images (default true)
  -t, --table                           enable the flag to display images retrieved in table format (disabled by default)
  -u, --unique                          enable the flag if duplicates to be removed from the retrieved list (default true)
  -f, --values ValueFiles               specify values in a YAML file (can specify multiple) (default [])
      --version version[=true]          --version, --version=raw prints version information and quits; --version=vX.Y.Z... sets the reported version
  -y, --yaml                            enable the flag to display images retrieved in yaml format (disabled by default)

Documentation

Updated documentation on all available commands and flags can be found here.

Caveats

If the plugin is not listing the expected images, then most likely the helm list-images plugin does not support fetching images from the workload that it is part of. Invoking the plugin with log-level set to debug should give information if the plugin is not supporting the workload..

The plugin only supports the resources that are defined under flag --kind.

Available resources can be found here.