Prepare for Flux v2.3.0

[stefanprodan]

Flux 2.3.0 promotes the Helm APIs to GA and comes with new features, bug fixes and performance improvements.

📅 Target dates: 13-14 May

🚀 Roadmap milestone: https://fluxcd.io/roadmap/#v23-q2-2024

API promotion

• HelmRelease helm.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v2 (v2beta2 deprecated)
• HelmRepository source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 (v1beta2 deprecated)
• HelmChart source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 (v1beta2 deprecated)
• ImageUpdateAutomation image.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1beta2 (v1beta1 deprecated)

Dependencies updates

• Kubernetes 1.30
• Go 1.22
• Kustomize 5.4
• Helm 3.14
• Cosign 2.2

Release checklist

• source-controller v1.3.0
• kustomize-controller v1.3.0
• notification-controller v1.3.0
• helm-controller: v1.0.1
• image-reflector-controller v0.32.0
• image-automation-controller v0.38.0
• flux-benchmark v2.3.0
• flux2 v2.3.0
• terraform-provider-flux v1.3.0

Documentation

• Update docs to promoted APIs
• Publish Flux release change log to GitHub & Slack
• Publish v2.3 website

Conformance testing

Distribution	Versions
Kubernetes KinD	1.28.9, 1.29.4, 1.30.0
OpenShift	4.15.0-okd
K3s	1.28.7, 1.29.2
Google Cloud	1.28.7-gke.1026000

TODO

• Promote Helm APIs to source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1 (GA) source-controller#1428
• Add ref.semverFilter to OCIRepository API source-controller#1391
• feat(notation): add support for notation in HelmChart and OCIRepository configuration source-controller#1075
• Helm: Allow insecure registry login source-controller#1412
• Document how to use numbers and booleans in post build substitutions kustomize-controller#1129
• Add StrictPostBuildSubstitutions feature flag kustomize-controller#1130
• Add namePrefix and nameSuffix to Flux Kustomization API kustomize-controller#1133
• Upgrade to 2.2.3 not solve the issue: kustomization.yaml is empty #4601
• [RFC-0006] Add CDEvent Receiver Support notification-controller#772
• Add alternative key name for the commit status secret notification-controller#745
• Add support for Bitbucket Context path notification-controller#747
• Alertmanager: Change timestamp label to .StartsAt notification-controller#795
• Promote HelmRelease API to v2 (GA) helm-controller#963
• Update controller to Helm v3.14.3 and Kubernetes v1.29.0 helm-controller#879
• Add support for OCIRepository as chartRef helm-controller#905
• Add the chart app version to status and events metadata helm-controller#968
• Use existing HelmChart resource in a HelmRelease helm-controller#204
• [BUG] Drift Detection can not be disabled for specific resources using annotations or labels helm-controller#922
• Changes in postRenderers are ingored helm-controller#964
• Add support to limit applied policies in automation by specifying a selector image-automation-controller#619
• Allow including the previous image tag in the commit message template image-automation-controller#437
• ImageUpdateAutomation enhancements with v1beta2 API image-automation-controller#643
• Implement flux envsubst command #4708
• Generate image pull secret at bootstrap #4621
• Add --strict-substitute flag to flux build ks and flux diff ks  #4709
• Add a subcommand to create a notation secret #4692
• Update Flux components to Go 1.22 and Kubernetes 1.29 #4695
• Update Flux components to Kustomize to v5.4.0 #4700
• Set GOMAXPROCS and GOMEMLIMIT to all Flux controllers #4717
• bootstrap: Add support for Git HTTP/S authorization header #4728
• Add flags for issuer/subject OCI signature verification #4727
• Add --reproducible flag to flux push artifact #4769
• Add commands for working with HelmChart v1 objects #4760
• Add support for HelmReleases v2 with .spec.chartRef #4761
• Remove deprecated providers: flux_install and flux_sync terraform-provider-flux#615
• Implement drift detection and correction for cluster state terraform-provider-flux#661
• Use embedded Flux manifests for air-gapped bootstrap terraform-provider-flux#664
• Add bootstrap guide for Oracle VBS Git Repositories website#1931

[siegenthalerroger]

Are release candidates being considered for these minor versions? Considering some of the issues found on the previous minor release, this might be a possible improvement.

I'm happy to raise this in a discussion or on slack if that's preferable.

[stefanprodan]

Are release candidates being considered for these minor versions?

Not with the current team of core maintainers. A release takes about 2 full days for 2-3 people. We just don't have enough people to do work full-time on Flux.

[siegenthalerroger]

Are release candidates being considered for these minor versions?

Not with the current team of core maintainers. A release takes about 2 full days for 2-3 people. We just don't have enough people to do work full-time on Flux.

That's very understandable :)