`kctrl package installed delete` has no `--wait` option

[matteo-magni]

Describe the problem/challenge you have

I want to handle myself the waiting for both installation and removal of a package.
During installation I can provide the --wait=false flag to the kctrl package install command, but unfortunately such an option is not available to the kctrl package installed delete command.

Describe the solution you'd like

The same --wait flag should be made available to kctrl package installed delete command, too, and make the command behave accordingly:
true (default): the command returns only after the package has been completely removed, like it's behaving as of today;
false: the command returns immediately with exit code 0 and should completely detach from the uninstall process that's been taken care of by kapp-controller.

Anything else you would like to add:

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[rohitagg2020]

Thanks, @matteo-magni for reporting the issue. We will discuss and update the issue with next steps.

[100mik]

Hey @matteo-magni !
This is actually intended behaviour. Primarily because we create RBAC resources when a service account is not supplied explicitly. We do not allow disabling wait as doing so would not allow us to garbage collect these resources when we have deleted the PackageInstall.

Could you elaborate on how this behaviour helps you and when you are looking to use it?

[matteo-magni]

Hi @100mik ,
the kapp-controller is actually the one doing the heavy-lifting for both installing and removing packages, and therefore the presence or lack of the --wait flag in kctrl CLI would not affect it. This is to say that I think it could (or should) take care of the RBAC resources anyways.

I don't mind (too much) about this feature when running kctrl interactively, but my main use case is in a CI workflow, where I'd like to have the CLI return immediately. This would allow me to:

1. run other commands whilst kapp-controller gets rid of the resources included in the package;
2. not getting flooded by verbose deletion messages at intervals specified via --wait-check-interval, which would end up "polluting" the workflow logs;
3. wait at my own discretion for everything to be cleaned up via kubectl wait --for=delete packageinstalls.packaging.carvel.dev my-install-name.

Cheers

[100mik]

I see the use case you have.
kctrl simply translates/creates kapp-controller CRs. The PackageInstall resource created by kctrl on the cluster is refers to the ServiceAccount that kctrl creates.

The controller itself does not treat other resources created by kctrl differently.

From our perspective, we are trying to avoid cases where users use the --wait flag without realising that there might be resources left behind.

In theory, we could have something like --dangerous-deactivate-wait>
However, I wonder if this could be resolved by some bash magic. Something along the lines of "pipe output for this command to a file and check for completion at the end". Gonna dig in a bit.