Implementing Template Whitespace Control

1. Understanding Whitespace Behavior

Construct	Whitespace effect
`{{ x }}`	Preserves surrounding whitespace + newline
`{{- x }}`	Trims whitespace + newline to the left
`{{ x -}}`	Trims whitespace + newline to the right
`{{- x -}}`	Trims both sides

spec:
  replicas: 1
  {{- if .Values.extra }}
  extra: yes
  {{- end }}

name: {{ .Values.name -}}
-suffix

When	Why
Inside `define`	Avoid leading/trailing newlines in named templates
Around `if/end`	Prevent empty lines in YAML output

Function	Difference
`indent N`	Adds N leading spaces to each line; no leading newline
`nindent N`	Same + prepends `\n` — safe after `:`

resources:
  {{- toYaml .Values.resources | nindent 2 }}

Comment style	Survives render?
`{{/* ... */}}`	No — completely stripped
`# yaml comment`	Yes — appears in rendered manifest

# BAD — produces blank lines
{{ if .Values.x }}
foo: bar
{{ end }}

# GOOD — trimmed
{{- if .Values.x }}
foo: bar
{{- end }}

Scalar style	Behavior
`\|`	Literal — preserve newlines
`\|-`	Literal, strip trailing newline
`\|+`	Literal, keep trailing newlines
`>`	Folded — newlines become spaces
`>-`	Folded, strip trailing newline

Tool	Use
`helm template ./chart`	Inspect rendered YAML
`helm template ./chart \| cat -A`	Show invisibles (tabs, EOL)
`helm install --debug --dry-run`	Verbose render with values
`yamllint` / `kubectl apply --dry-run=client`	Validate output