Start & Build fluxcd/flux2 Codebase

Building and Starting Flux

This guide provides a step-by-step explanation of building and starting the Flux project.

Prerequisites

Go: Ensure you have Go installed.
Docker: Flux uses Docker for building images and running the environment tests.

Building Flux

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/fluxcd/flux2.git
cd flux2

Build the project:
```
make build 
```
This will build the Flux binary and place it in the _output/bin directory.

Starting Flux

Install Flux (if needed):
```
make install-dev
```
This command installs the latest development version of Flux to your system.

Running Tests

Run unit tests:
```
make test
```
Run end-to-end tests:
```
make e2e
```
These tests require a Kubernetes cluster and Kind for setting up the environment.
Run environment tests:
```
make envtest
```
These tests are designed to validate Flux’s behavior in different environments.

Contributing to Flux

If you are interested in contributing to Flux, consider the following:

Code style:
```
make fmt
```
Code linting:
```
make vet 
```
Clean up dependencies:
```
make tidy 
```
Install environment test dependencies:
```
make install-envtest
```

Running Flux with Kind

Setup Kind environment:
```
make setup-kind
```
Setup Kind environment with image automation:
```
make setup-image-automation
```
Run tests with Kind:
```
make test-with-kind
```
Clean up Kind environment:
```
make cleanup-kind
```

These steps will guide you through building, testing, and running Flux. For more information on contributing to Flux, please refer to the Flux documentation: https://fluxcd.io/docs/.