Hi all,

Following the HIP guide. I am looking for feedback regarding my idea below:

The current Helm uninstall implementation is marking release record as uninstalled even if Helm detected errors during the uninstall process. See:

https://github.com/helm/helm/blob/v3.4.2/pkg/action/uninstall.go#L122-L127

https://github.com/helm/helm/blob/v3.4.2/pkg/action/uninstall.go#L144-L150

If the release record is marked as uninstalled then re-attempting to helm uninstall doesn't actually delete any resources (just purge the release record) . See:

https://github.com/helm/helm/blob/v3.4.2/pkg/action/uninstall.go#L81-L91

I think it's very useful for scripts or automation tools to be able to re-attempt a helm uninstall that resulted in error.

That's why I am sharing my idea of adding a new flag to helm uninstall "--fail-on-error".
If this flag is enabled, and the helm uninstall is successful then it doesn't change any behavior.

If this flag is enabled, and the helm uninstall completed with errors then update the release record to "failed-uninstall" status.

This allows the next helm uninstall attempt to actually perform resources delete.

For reference, I initially suggested https://github.com/helm/helm/issues/9201 but after thinking about it I think this "--fail-on-error" idea is much clearer and cleaner.

Thank you for reading and please provide some feedback. I am willing to drive the implementation if needed.

Mike Ng