H4HIP: Forward compatibility: Chart.yaml minimumHelmVersion field

hips/hip-XXXX.md

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+---
+hip: 9999
+title: "Forward compatibility: Chart.yaml minimumHelmVersion"
+authors: [ "George Jenkins <[email protected]>" ]
+created: "2024-11-18"
+type: "feature"
+status: "draft"
+helm-version: "4"
+---
+
+## Abstract
+
+This HIP proposes supporting a `minimumHelmVersion` field in `Chart.yaml`.
+By enabling this feature, an error can be raised if the Helm version used to operate on the chart is below the declared version.
+This allows Helm to provide forward compatibility guarantees for Helm features/functionality over time.
+
+
+## Motivation
+
+Helm has no mechanism for a chart to declare the minimal version of Helm required for the chart to install/update correctly.
+As such, it is invalid to release a chart that utilizes features/fixes included in newer versions of Helm.
+
+At best, any incompatibility will be detected and there will be an explicit failure (and the user will be notified with an error).
+But potentially an incompatibility may go undetected, and no hard error will be presented.
+
+While the hard-failure case is better, it still requires the user to debug and realize the failure is due to a version mismatch.
+The second "soft-failure" case is much worse, as it could lead to unexpected behavior in the deployed chart application, likely requiring a much more involved debugging requirement and confusing user experience.
+
+Providing a mechanism for a chart to prescribe the minimum versions of Helm for the chart's feature set will enable chart developers to prevent indirect errors for chart consumers/operators.
+
+Supporting a simple SemVer based `minimumHelmVersion` field in chart's `Chart.yaml` is thought to be a simple way to provide forward compatibility guarantees.
+
+
+## Rationale
+
+It is thought that over time, as Helm extends its functionality, there will be greater scope for forward compatibility errors to present themselves.
+
+And in particular, the mechanism that describes the minimum feature set must be built into and understood by prior versions of Helm.
+
+Utilizing a simple minimum version SemVer field in a chart is thought to be a simple and succinct way to enable forward compatibility guarantees for future versions of Helm.
+
+Similar to the way the Go toolchains allow forward compatibility guarentees via [`go.mod`][1].
+
+
+## Specification
+
+`Chart.yaml` will include an optional field `minimumHelmVersion`, which is a [SemVer][2] string for the minimum version of Helm required for the chart to operate:
+
+```
+minimumHelmVersion: <MAJOR>[.<MINOR>[.<PATCH>]]
+```
+
+The minor and patch fields are optional.
+And will be inferred as zeros if not specified.
+
+When loading a chart, if the `minimumHelmVersion` exists, Helm will verify its version exceeds or equals the version constraint specified in the field.
+
+When "strict" loading of `Chart.yaml` is used: ie. the loading of `Chart.yaml` errors when unknown fields are present, Helm will first 'peek' into `Chart.yaml` and extract the `minimumHelmVersion` field (if it exists) and perform the version constraint check at this point.
+This is to provide better UX than simply raising an error on any potential new fields in `Chart.yaml` that are unknown to the current version of Helm.
+
+## Backwards compatibility
+
+As `minimumHelmVersion` is an optional field, it will be inferred to be unset in existing charts.
+And when unset, Helm will retain existing behavior (no check will be implemented)
+
+Older versions of Helm which do not understand the `minimumHelmVersion` field will ignore the field even if set (as they load `Chart.yaml` ignoring unknown fields).
+However, there isn't anything that can practically be done to address this encoded behavior.
+
+
+## Security implications
+
+None
+
+
+## How to teach this
+
+Update docs for `Chart.yaml`
+
+
+## Reference implementation
+
+N/A
+
+
+## Rejected ideas
+
+**Generic version contraints:**
+It is thought a "minimum" constraint is preferred over a generic "constraint" system.
+ie. where a user could list multiple version constraints to be satisfied
+Similar to e.g. [pip's requirement-specifiers][3].
+This is because Helm makes great effort to remain [backwards compatibility][4].
+And so it is presumed unnecessary that a user would need to specify anything but a single minimum version constraint.
+And in the future when Helm does make breaking changes to charts, it is expected the chart API version will be incremented to explicitly signify this new incompatiblity.
+
+**Capabilities:**
+Providing a capabilities based system.
+Rather than just directly inferring Helm capabilities from its version.
+
+A `Chart.yaml` could describe its required features ie. capabilities it expects/requires the Helm version to provide.
+Helm could inspect and match against features/capabilities that the specific version does provide.
+However, since core Helm capabilities are only every additive due to Helm's [backwards-compatibility rules][4], a capabilities based system is redundant.
+
+*NB: at the time of writing, plugins for extending Helm's functionality are being heavily discussed.
+And while plugins will likely allow extending capabilities independent of the Helm version, it is presumed plugins will include their own version constraint specifier system.
+That will ensure conditions for valid plugin versions are met*
+
+### Future ideas
+
+Extending `helm lint` to detect incompatible chart features for the currently specified `minimumHelmVersion`.
+
+
+## Open issues
+
+N/A
+
+
+## References
+
+[1]: <https://go.dev/blog/toolchain#forward> "Golang forward compatibility"
+[2]: <https://semver.org> "Semantic versioning"
+[3]: <https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/reference/requirement-specifiers/#requirement-specifiers> "Pip request-specifiers"
+[4]: <hip-0004.md> "hip-0004: Document backwards-compatibility rules"