Introduction of --skip-needs results in breaking change

[strainovic]

Operating system

Windows x64

Helmfile Version

0.143.0-0.145.3

Helm Version

3.9.0

Bug description

We use a selector(s) to match and template/sync only a single or subset of services. Everything worked fine until we updated the helmfile version.

helmfile version v0.142.0 works fine with --selector/-l and template command

helmfile version v0.143.0 with the same command produces the following error(s):

in ./helmfile.yaml: release(s) "platform-dev/bpm" depend(s) on an undefined release "platform-dev/authentication". Perhaps you made a typo in "needs" or forgot defining a release named "authentication" with appropriate "namespace" and "kubeContext"?

The sync command worked fine with -selector/-l with both mentioned versions.

Helmfile version 0.145.2 works fine with --selector/-l and sync command

Helmfile version 0.145.3 with the same command produces the following error(s):

Error: in ./helmfile.yaml: release "platform-dev/comments" depends on "platform-dev/api-management" which does not match the selectors. Please add a selector like "--selector name=api-management", or indicate 
whether to skip (--skip-needs) or include (--include-needs) these dependencies

in ./helmfile.yaml: release "platform-dev/comments" depends on "platform-dev/api-management" which does not match the selectors. Please add a selector like "--selector name=api-management", or indicate whether to skip (--skip-needs) or include (--include-needs) these dependencies

Everything works fine if we add -skip-needs on the latest helmfile released version.

Do we really need this breaking change and if yes, what is the benefit of it?

Thanks :)

Example helmfile.yaml

Error message you've seen (if any)

Steps to reproduce

Working Helmfile Version

0.142.0

Relevant discussion

[yxxhero]

@strainovic I will work on this. Thanks for your issue.

[mumoshu]

We added this to fix the bug that -l foo=bar resulted in unfilled need to be silently ignored. roboll/helmfile#1772
Other folks complained (apparently folks don't mind much about some needs silently ignored..?) so I changed it to use --skip-needs by default in https://github.com/roboll/helmfile/releases/tag/v0.139.2.
Now, I don't understand why it's still happening! This shouldn't happen after v0.139.2.

@yxxhero How are you going to "fix" it? Did we unintentionally introduced a regression when we migrated to cobra?

[yxxhero]

@mumoshu no. In v0.143.0 we not introduce cobra. I made some repairs according to my understanding. please see: #342

[mumoshu]

@yxxhero Which commit/pull request broke it then...? The only relevant commit in v0.143.0 would be roboll/helmfile#2026. But it has been added for a good reason.
@strainovic Hey! Are you sure you don't actually have any typo in your helmfile's needs entries? Could you share your helmfile.yaml?

[mumoshu]

@yxxhero I reviewed #342 but I'm still unsure what it's supposed to do. Are you going to make --skip-needs the default? But I thought we already made it so in https://github.com/roboll/helmfile/releases/tag/v0.139.2

[yxxhero]

roboll/helmfile#1835
I see this PR.
I don't understand why --skip-needs is default true?

from the code. it will return false when --skip-needs not provided.

[mumoshu]

@yxxhero I think the key difference is the use of BoolTFlag vs BoolFlag.

[yxxhero]

@mumoshu oh. I konw. I will check the code again.

[yxxhero]

@mumoshu done. sorry for this issue.

[mumoshu]

@yxxhero Thanks! To be extra clear, your fix addresses the regression introduced in 0.145.0, right?

[yxxhero]

@mumoshu yes.