"waiting for container" overrides regular status messages

[Merlijn Sebrechts]

I’m trying to create a “proxy charm” in Kubernetes. The charm doesn’t create a container or anything, it’s just there to represent an external service so other charms can relate to it and receive info on how to connect to the external service.

The issue is that status updates of type active seem to be overwritten by the message “waiting for container”, even though the charm doesn’t try to create a container.

The reactive file:

```python
#/usr/bin/env python3
from charms.reactive import when, when_not
from charmhelpers.core.hookenv import (
    status_set,
    config,
)

from charmhelpers.core import hookenv

@when('config.changed.base-url')
def consumer_active():
    cfg = config()
    base_url = cfg.get("base-url")
    if base_url:
        status_set('active', '({})'.format(base_url))
    else:
        status_set('blocked', 'Please set the "base-url" config option.')
```

This results in the following status messages. I set the "base-url" config option around `17 Apr 2019 14:56:47+02:00`. The `blocked` message is shown, but the `active` one isn't.

```
Time Type Status Message
17 Apr 2019 14:56:20+02:00 juju-unit allocating
17 Apr 2019 14:56:20+02:00 workload waiting waiting for container
17 Apr 2019 14:56:45+02:00 juju-unit executing running start hook
17 Apr 2019 14:56:46+02:00 workload blocked Please set the "base-url" config option.
17 Apr 2019 14:56:46+02:00 juju-unit executing running leader-settings-changed hook
17 Apr 2019 14:56:47+02:00 juju-unit executing running config-changed hook
17 Apr 2019 14:56:48+02:00 juju-unit idle
17 Apr 2019 14:56:56+02:00 juju-unit executing running config-changed hook
17 Apr 2019 14:56:57+02:00 juju-unit idle
```

I thought this might be something set by a lower layer, but this doesn't seem the case.

layer.yaml

```yaml
includes:
  - "layer:caas-base"
```

metadata.yaml

```yaml
name: sse-endpoint
summary: Example SSE endpoint
maintainers:
  - Merlijn Sebrechts <email address hidden>
description: |
  Example SSE endpoint k8s charm
tags:
  - database
series:
   - kubernetes
```

Is there any way to show the actual status messages instead of `waiting for container`? k8s charms are perfect to create proxy charms because their footprint is very low, but the current behaviour makes this use-case more or less impossible.

Discussion on discourse: https://discourse.jujucharms.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-waiting-for-container-message/1369

[Canonical Juju QA Bot (juju-qa-bot)]

This bug has not been updated in 2 years, so we're marking it Low importance. If you believe this is incorrect, please update the importance.