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Install Tools

Set up Kubernetes tools on your computer.

kubectl

The Kubernetes command-line tool, kubectl, allows you to run commands against Kubernetes clusters. You can use kubectl to deploy applications, inspect and manage cluster resources, and view logs. For more information including a complete list of kubectl operations, see the kubectl reference documentation.

kubectl is installable on a variety of Linux platforms, macOS and Windows. Find your preferred operating system below.

kind

kind lets you run Kubernetes on your local computer. This tool requires that you have Docker installed and configured.

The kind Quick Start page shows you what you need to do to get up and running with kind.

View kind Quick Start Guide

minikube

Like kind, minikube is a tool that lets you run Kubernetes locally. minikube runs a single-node Kubernetes cluster on your personal computer (including Windows, macOS and Linux PCs) so that you can try out Kubernetes, or for daily development work.

You can follow the official Get Started! guide if your focus is on getting the tool installed.

View minikube Get Started! Guide

Once you have minikube working, you can use it to run a sample application.

kubeadm

You can use the kubeadm tool to create and manage Kubernetes clusters. It performs the actions necessary to get a minimum viable, secure cluster up and running in a user friendly way.

Installing kubeadm shows you how to install kubeadm. Once installed, you can use it to create a cluster.

View kubeadm Install Guide

1 - Install and Set Up kubectl on Linux

Before you begin

You must use a kubectl version that is within one minor version difference of your cluster. For example, a v1.21 client can communicate with v1.20, v1.21, and v1.22 control planes. Using the latest version of kubectl helps avoid unforeseen issues.

Install kubectl on Linux

The following methods exist for installing kubectl on Linux:

Install kubectl binary with curl on Linux

  1. Download the latest release with the command:

    curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"
    Note:

    To download a specific version, replace the $(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt) portion of the command with the specific version.

    For example, to download version v1.21.14 on Linux, type:

    curl -LO https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.21.14/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl

  2. Validate the binary (optional)

    Download the kubectl checksum file:

    curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl.sha256"

    Validate the kubectl binary against the checksum file:

    echo "$(<kubectl.sha256) kubectl" | sha256sum --check

    If valid, the output is:

    kubectl: OK

    If the check fails, sha256 exits with nonzero status and prints output similar to:

    kubectl: FAILED
sha256sum: WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match
    Note: Download the same version of the binary and checksum.

  3. Install kubectl

    sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
    Note:

    If you do not have root access on the target system, you can still install kubectl to the ~/.local/bin directory:

    chmod +x kubectl
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin/kubectl
mv ./kubectl ~/.local/bin/kubectl
# and then add ~/.local/bin/kubectl to $PATH

  4. Test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date:

    kubectl version --client

Install using native package management

  1. Update the apt package index and install packages needed to use the Kubernetes apt repository:

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl

  2. Download the Google Cloud public signing key:

    sudo curl -fsSLo /usr/share/keyrings/kubernetes-archive-keyring.gpg https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg

  3. Add the Kubernetes apt repository:

    echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/kubernetes-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.kubernetes.io/ kubernetes-xenial main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list

  4. Update apt package index with the new repository and install kubectl:

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y kubectl



cat <<EOF > /etc/yum.repos.d/kubernetes.repo
[kubernetes]
name=Kubernetes
baseurl=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/repos/kubernetes-el7-x86_64
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/yum-key.gpg https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/rpm-package-key.gpg
EOF
yum install -y kubectl

Install using other package management

If you are on Ubuntu or another Linux distribution that support snap package manager, kubectl is available as a snap application.

snap install kubectl --classic
kubectl version --client

If you are on Linux and using Homebrew package manager, kubectl is available for installation.

brew install kubectl
kubectl version --client

Verify kubectl configuration

In order for kubectl to find and access a Kubernetes cluster, it needs a kubeconfig file, which is created automatically when you create a cluster using kube-up.sh or successfully deploy a Minikube cluster. By default, kubectl configuration is located at ~/.kube/config.

Check that kubectl is properly configured by getting the cluster state:

kubectl cluster-info

If you see a URL response, kubectl is correctly configured to access your cluster.

If you see a message similar to the following, kubectl is not configured correctly or is not able to connect to a Kubernetes cluster.

The connection to the server <server-name:port> was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

For example, if you are intending to run a Kubernetes cluster on your laptop (locally), you will need a tool like Minikube to be installed first and then re-run the commands stated above.

If kubectl cluster-info returns the url response but you can't access your cluster, to check whether it is configured properly, use:

kubectl cluster-info dump

Optional kubectl configurations and plugins

Enable shell autocompletion

kubectl provides autocompletion support for Bash and Zsh, which can save you a lot of typing.

Below are the procedures to set up autocompletion for Bash and Zsh.

Introduction

The kubectl completion script for Bash can be generated with the command kubectl completion bash. Sourcing the completion script in your shell enables kubectl autocompletion.

However, the completion script depends on bash-completion, which means that you have to install this software first (you can test if you have bash-completion already installed by running type _init_completion).

Install bash-completion

bash-completion is provided by many package managers (see here). You can install it with apt-get install bash-completion or yum install bash-completion, etc.

The above commands create /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion, which is the main script of bash-completion. Depending on your package manager, you have to manually source this file in your ~/.bashrc file.

To find out, reload your shell and run type _init_completion. If the command succeeds, you're already set, otherwise add the following to your ~/.bashrc file:

source /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion

Reload your shell and verify that bash-completion is correctly installed by typing type _init_completion.

Enable kubectl autocompletion

You now need to ensure that the kubectl completion script gets sourced in all your shell sessions. There are two ways in which you can do this:

  • Source the completion script in your ~/.bashrc file:

    echo 'source <(kubectl completion bash)' >>~/.bashrc

  • Add the completion script to the /etc/bash_completion.d directory:

    kubectl completion bash >/etc/bash_completion.d/kubectl

If you have an alias for kubectl, you can extend shell completion to work with that alias:

echo 'alias k=kubectl' >>~/.bashrc
echo 'complete -F __start_kubectl k' >>~/.bashrc
Note: bash-completion sources all completion scripts in /etc/bash_completion.d.

Both approaches are equivalent. After reloading your shell, kubectl autocompletion should be working.

The kubectl completion script for Zsh can be generated with the command kubectl completion zsh. Sourcing the completion script in your shell enables kubectl autocompletion.

To do so in all your shell sessions, add the following to your ~/.zshrc file:

source <(kubectl completion zsh)

If you have an alias for kubectl, you can extend shell completion to work with that alias:

echo 'alias k=kubectl' >>~/.zshrc
echo 'complete -F __start_kubectl k' >>~/.zshrc

After reloading your shell, kubectl autocompletion should be working.

If you get an error like complete:13: command not found: compdef, then add the following to the beginning of your ~/.zshrc file:

autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

Install kubectl convert plugin

A plugin for Kubernetes command-line tool kubectl, which allows you to convert manifests between different API versions. This can be particularly helpful to migrate manifests to a non-deprecated api version with newer Kubernetes release. For more info, visit migrate to non deprecated apis

  1. Download the latest release with the command:

    curl -LO https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl-convert

  2. Validate the binary (optional)

    Download the kubectl-convert checksum file:

    curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl-convert.sha256"

    Validate the kubectl-convert binary against the checksum file:

    echo "$(<kubectl-convert.sha256) kubectl-convert" | sha256sum --check

    If valid, the output is:

    kubectl-convert: OK

    If the check fails, sha256 exits with nonzero status and prints output similar to:

    kubectl-convert: FAILED
sha256sum: WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match
    Note: Download the same version of the binary and checksum.

  3. Install kubectl-convert

    sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl-convert /usr/local/bin/kubectl-convert

  4. Verify plugin is successfully installed

    kubectl convert --help

    If you do not see an error, it means the plugin is successfully installed.

What's next

2 - Install and Set Up kubectl on macOS

Before you begin

You must use a kubectl version that is within one minor version difference of your cluster. For example, a v1.21 client can communicate with v1.20, v1.21, and v1.22 control planes. Using the latest version of kubectl helps avoid unforeseen issues.

Install kubectl on macOS

The following methods exist for installing kubectl on macOS:

Install kubectl binary with curl on macOS

  1. Download the latest release:

    
   curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl"
   

    
   curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl"
    Note:

    To download a specific version, replace the $(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt) portion of the command with the specific version.

    For example, to download version v1.21.14 on Intel macOS, type:

    curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.21.14/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl"

    And for macOS on Apple Silicon, type:

    curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.21.14/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl"

  2. Validate the binary (optional)

    Download the kubectl checksum file:

    
   curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl.sha256"
   

    
   curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl.sha256"

    Validate the kubectl binary against the checksum file:

    echo "$(<kubectl.sha256)  kubectl" | shasum -a 256 --check

    If valid, the output is:

    kubectl: OK

    If the check fails, shasum exits with nonzero status and prints output similar to:

    kubectl: FAILED
shasum: WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match
    Note: Download the same version of the binary and checksum.

  3. Make the kubectl binary executable.

    chmod +x ./kubectl

  4. Move the kubectl binary to a file location on your system PATH.

    sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
sudo chown root: /usr/local/bin/kubectl
    Note: Make sure /usr/local/bin is in your PATH environment variable.

  5. Test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date:

    kubectl version --client

Install with Homebrew on macOS

If you are on macOS and using Homebrew package manager, you can install kubectl with Homebrew.

  1. Run the installation command:

    brew install kubectl

    or

    brew install kubernetes-cli

  2. Test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date:

    kubectl version --client

Install with Macports on macOS

If you are on macOS and using Macports package manager, you can install kubectl with Macports.

  1. Run the installation command:

    sudo port selfupdate
sudo port install kubectl

  2. Test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date:

    kubectl version --client

Verify kubectl configuration

In order for kubectl to find and access a Kubernetes cluster, it needs a kubeconfig file, which is created automatically when you create a cluster using kube-up.sh or successfully deploy a Minikube cluster. By default, kubectl configuration is located at ~/.kube/config.

Check that kubectl is properly configured by getting the cluster state:

kubectl cluster-info

If you see a URL response, kubectl is correctly configured to access your cluster.

If you see a message similar to the following, kubectl is not configured correctly or is not able to connect to a Kubernetes cluster.

The connection to the server <server-name:port> was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

For example, if you are intending to run a Kubernetes cluster on your laptop (locally), you will need a tool like Minikube to be installed first and then re-run the commands stated above.

If kubectl cluster-info returns the url response but you can't access your cluster, to check whether it is configured properly, use:

kubectl cluster-info dump

Optional kubectl configurations and plugins

Enable shell autocompletion

kubectl provides autocompletion support for Bash and Zsh, which can save you a lot of typing.

Below are the procedures to set up autocompletion for Bash and Zsh.

Introduction

The kubectl completion script for Bash can be generated with kubectl completion bash. Sourcing this script in your shell enables kubectl completion.

However, the kubectl completion script depends on bash-completion which you thus have to previously install.

Warning: There are two versions of bash-completion, v1 and v2. V1 is for Bash 3.2 (which is the default on macOS), and v2 is for Bash 4.1+. The kubectl completion script doesn't work correctly with bash-completion v1 and Bash 3.2. It requires bash-completion v2 and Bash 4.1+. Thus, to be able to correctly use kubectl completion on macOS, you have to install and use Bash 4.1+ (instructions). The following instructions assume that you use Bash 4.1+ (that is, any Bash version of 4.1 or newer).

Upgrade Bash

The instructions here assume you use Bash 4.1+. You can check your Bash's version by running:

echo $BASH_VERSION

If it is too old, you can install/upgrade it using Homebrew:

brew install bash

Reload your shell and verify that the desired version is being used:

echo $BASH_VERSION $SHELL

Homebrew usually installs it at /usr/local/bin/bash.

Install bash-completion

Note: As mentioned, these instructions assume you use Bash 4.1+, which means you will install bash-completion v2 (in contrast to Bash 3.2 and bash-completion v1, in which case kubectl completion won't work).

You can test if you have bash-completion v2 already installed with type _init_completion. If not, you can install it with Homebrew:

brew install bash-completion@2

As stated in the output of this command, add the following to your ~/.bash_profile file:

export BASH_COMPLETION_COMPAT_DIR="/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d"
[[ -r "/usr/local/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh" ]] && . "/usr/local/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh"

Reload your shell and verify that bash-completion v2 is correctly installed with type _init_completion.

Enable kubectl autocompletion

You now have to ensure that the kubectl completion script gets sourced in all your shell sessions. There are multiple ways to achieve this:

  • Source the completion script in your ~/.bash_profile file:

    echo 'source <(kubectl completion bash)' >>~/.bash_profile

  • Add the completion script to the /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d directory:

    kubectl completion bash >/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/kubectl

  • If you have an alias for kubectl, you can extend shell completion to work with that alias:

    echo 'alias k=kubectl' >>~/.bash_profile
echo 'complete -F __start_kubectl k' >>~/.bash_profile

  • If you installed kubectl with Homebrew (as explained here), then the kubectl completion script should already be in /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/kubectl. In that case, you don't need to do anything.

    Note: The Homebrew installation of bash-completion v2 sources all the files in the BASH_COMPLETION_COMPAT_DIR directory, that's why the latter two methods work.

In any case, after reloading your shell, kubectl completion should be working.

The kubectl completion script for Zsh can be generated with the command kubectl completion zsh. Sourcing the completion script in your shell enables kubectl autocompletion.

To do so in all your shell sessions, add the following to your ~/.zshrc file:

source <(kubectl completion zsh)

If you have an alias for kubectl, you can extend shell completion to work with that alias:

echo 'alias k=kubectl' >>~/.zshrc
echo 'complete -F __start_kubectl k' >>~/.zshrc

After reloading your shell, kubectl autocompletion should be working.

If you get an error like complete:13: command not found: compdef, then add the following to the beginning of your ~/.zshrc file:

autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

Install kubectl convert plugin

A plugin for Kubernetes command-line tool kubectl, which allows you to convert manifests between different API versions. This can be particularly helpful to migrate manifests to a non-deprecated api version with newer Kubernetes release. For more info, visit migrate to non deprecated apis

  1. Download the latest release with the command:

    
   curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl-convert"
   

    
   curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl-convert"

  2. Validate the binary (optional)

    Download the kubectl-convert checksum file:

    
   curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl-convert.sha256"
   

    
   curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl-convert.sha256"

    Validate the kubectl-convert binary against the checksum file:

    echo "$(<kubectl-convert.sha256)  kubectl-convert" | shasum -a 256 --check

    If valid, the output is:

    kubectl-convert: OK

    If the check fails, shasum exits with nonzero status and prints output similar to:

    kubectl-convert: FAILED
shasum: WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match
    Note: Download the same version of the binary and checksum.

  3. Make kubectl-convert binary executable

    chmod +x ./kubectl-convert

  4. Move the kubectl-convert binary to a file location on your system PATH.

    sudo mv ./kubectl-convert /usr/local/bin/kubectl-convert
sudo chown root: /usr/local/bin/kubectl-convert
    Note: Make sure /usr/local/bin is in your PATH environment variable.

  5. Verify plugin is successfully installed

    kubectl convert --help

    If you do not see an error, it means the plugin is successfully installed.

What's next

3 - Install and Set Up kubectl on Windows

Before you begin

You must use a kubectl version that is within one minor version difference of your cluster. For example, a v1.21 client can communicate with v1.20, v1.21, and v1.22 control planes. Using the latest version of kubectl helps avoid unforeseen issues.

Install kubectl on Windows

The following methods exist for installing kubectl on Windows:

Install kubectl binary with curl on Windows

  1. Download the latest release v1.21.14.

    Or if you have curl installed, use this command:

    curl -LO https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.21.14/bin/windows/amd64/kubectl.exe
    Note: To find out the latest stable version (for example, for scripting), take a look at https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt.

  2. Validate the binary (optional)

    Download the kubectl checksum file:

    curl -LO https://dl.k8s.io/v1.21.14/bin/windows/amd64/kubectl.exe.sha256

    Validate the kubectl binary against the checksum file:

    • Using Command Prompt to manually compare CertUtil's output to the checksum file downloaded:

      CertUtil -hashfile kubectl.exe SHA256
type kubectl.exe.sha256

    • Using PowerShell to automate the verification using the -eq operator to get a True or False result:

      $($(CertUtil -hashfile .\kubectl.exe SHA256)[1] -replace " ", "") -eq $(type .\kubectl.exe.sha256)

  3. Add the binary in to your PATH.

  4. Test to ensure the version of kubectl is the same as downloaded:

    kubectl version --client
Note: Docker Desktop for Windows adds its own version of kubectl to PATH. If you have installed Docker Desktop before, you may need to place your PATH entry before the one added by the Docker Desktop installer or remove the Docker Desktop's kubectl.

Install on Windows using Chocolatey or Scoop

  1. To install kubectl on Windows you can use either Chocolatey package manager or Scoop command-line installer.

    choco install kubernetes-cli


    scoop install kubectl

  2. Test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date:

    kubectl version --client

  3. Navigate to your home directory:

    # If you're using cmd.exe, run: cd %USERPROFILE%
cd ~

  4. Create the .kube directory:

    mkdir .kube

  5. Change to the .kube directory you just created:

    cd .kube

  6. Configure kubectl to use a remote Kubernetes cluster:

    New-Item config -type file
Note: Edit the config file with a text editor of your choice, such as Notepad.

Verify kubectl configuration

In order for kubectl to find and access a Kubernetes cluster, it needs a kubeconfig file, which is created automatically when you create a cluster using kube-up.sh or successfully deploy a Minikube cluster. By default, kubectl configuration is located at ~/.kube/config.

Check that kubectl is properly configured by getting the cluster state:

kubectl cluster-info

If you see a URL response, kubectl is correctly configured to access your cluster.

If you see a message similar to the following, kubectl is not configured correctly or is not able to connect to a Kubernetes cluster.

The connection to the server <server-name:port> was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

For example, if you are intending to run a Kubernetes cluster on your laptop (locally), you will need a tool like Minikube to be installed first and then re-run the commands stated above.

If kubectl cluster-info returns the url response but you can't access your cluster, to check whether it is configured properly, use:

kubectl cluster-info dump

Optional kubectl configurations and plugins

Enable shell autocompletion

kubectl provides autocompletion support for Bash and Zsh, which can save you a lot of typing.

Below are the procedures to set up autocompletion for Zsh, if you are running that on Windows.

The kubectl completion script for Zsh can be generated with the command kubectl completion zsh. Sourcing the completion script in your shell enables kubectl autocompletion.

To do so in all your shell sessions, add the following to your ~/.zshrc file:

source <(kubectl completion zsh)

If you have an alias for kubectl, you can extend shell completion to work with that alias:

echo 'alias k=kubectl' >>~/.zshrc
echo 'complete -F __start_kubectl k' >>~/.zshrc

After reloading your shell, kubectl autocompletion should be working.

If you get an error like complete:13: command not found: compdef, then add the following to the beginning of your ~/.zshrc file:

autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

Install kubectl convert plugin

A plugin for Kubernetes command-line tool kubectl, which allows you to convert manifests between different API versions. This can be particularly helpful to migrate manifests to a non-deprecated api version with newer Kubernetes release. For more info, visit migrate to non deprecated apis

  1. Download the latest release with the command:

    curl -LO https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.21.14/bin/windows/amd64/kubectl-convert.exe

  2. Validate the binary (optional)

    Download the kubectl-convert checksum file:

    curl -LO https://dl.k8s.io/v1.21.14/bin/windows/amd64/kubectl-convert.exe.sha256

    Validate the kubectl-convert binary against the checksum file:

    • Using Command Prompt to manually compare CertUtil's output to the checksum file downloaded:

      CertUtil -hashfile kubectl-convert.exe SHA256
type kubectl-convert.exe.sha256

    • Using PowerShell to automate the verification using the -eq operator to get a True or False result:

      $($(CertUtil -hashfile .\kubectl-convert.exe SHA256)[1] -replace " ", "") -eq $(type .\kubectl-convert.exe.sha256)

  3. Add the binary in to your PATH.

  4. Verify plugin is successfully installed

    kubectl convert --help

    If you do not see an error, it means the plugin is successfully installed.

What's next

4 - Tools Included

Snippets to be included in the main kubectl-installs-*.md pages.

4.1 - bash auto-completion on Linux

Some optional configuration for bash auto-completion on Linux.

Introduction

The kubectl completion script for Bash can be generated with the command kubectl completion bash. Sourcing the completion script in your shell enables kubectl autocompletion.

However, the completion script depends on bash-completion, which means that you have to install this software first (you can test if you have bash-completion already installed by running type _init_completion).

Install bash-completion

bash-completion is provided by many package managers (see here). You can install it with apt-get install bash-completion or yum install bash-completion, etc.

The above commands create /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion, which is the main script of bash-completion. Depending on your package manager, you have to manually source this file in your ~/.bashrc file.

To find out, reload your shell and run type _init_completion. If the command succeeds, you're already set, otherwise add the following to your ~/.bashrc file:

source /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion

Reload your shell and verify that bash-completion is correctly installed by typing type _init_completion.

Enable kubectl autocompletion

You now need to ensure that the kubectl completion script gets sourced in all your shell sessions. There are two ways in which you can do this:

  • Source the completion script in your ~/.bashrc file:

    echo 'source <(kubectl completion bash)' >>~/.bashrc

  • Add the completion script to the /etc/bash_completion.d directory:

    kubectl completion bash >/etc/bash_completion.d/kubectl

If you have an alias for kubectl, you can extend shell completion to work with that alias:

echo 'alias k=kubectl' >>~/.bashrc
echo 'complete -F __start_kubectl k' >>~/.bashrc
Note: bash-completion sources all completion scripts in /etc/bash_completion.d.

Both approaches are equivalent. After reloading your shell, kubectl autocompletion should be working.

4.2 - bash auto-completion on macOS

Some optional configuration for bash auto-completion on macOS.

Introduction

The kubectl completion script for Bash can be generated with kubectl completion bash. Sourcing this script in your shell enables kubectl completion.

However, the kubectl completion script depends on bash-completion which you thus have to previously install.

Warning: There are two versions of bash-completion, v1 and v2. V1 is for Bash 3.2 (which is the default on macOS), and v2 is for Bash 4.1+. The kubectl completion script doesn't work correctly with bash-completion v1 and Bash 3.2. It requires bash-completion v2 and Bash 4.1+. Thus, to be able to correctly use kubectl completion on macOS, you have to install and use Bash 4.1+ (instructions). The following instructions assume that you use Bash 4.1+ (that is, any Bash version of 4.1 or newer).

Upgrade Bash

The instructions here assume you use Bash 4.1+. You can check your Bash's version by running:

echo $BASH_VERSION

If it is too old, you can install/upgrade it using Homebrew:

brew install bash

Reload your shell and verify that the desired version is being used:

echo $BASH_VERSION $SHELL

Homebrew usually installs it at /usr/local/bin/bash.

Install bash-completion

Note: As mentioned, these instructions assume you use Bash 4.1+, which means you will install bash-completion v2 (in contrast to Bash 3.2 and bash-completion v1, in which case kubectl completion won't work).

You can test if you have bash-completion v2 already installed with type _init_completion. If not, you can install it with Homebrew:

brew install bash-completion@2

As stated in the output of this command, add the following to your ~/.bash_profile file:

export BASH_COMPLETION_COMPAT_DIR="/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d"
[[ -r "/usr/local/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh" ]] && . "/usr/local/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh"

Reload your shell and verify that bash-completion v2 is correctly installed with type _init_completion.

Enable kubectl autocompletion

You now have to ensure that the kubectl completion script gets sourced in all your shell sessions. There are multiple ways to achieve this:

  • Source the completion script in your ~/.bash_profile file:

    echo 'source <(kubectl completion bash)' >>~/.bash_profile

  • Add the completion script to the /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d directory:

    kubectl completion bash >/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/kubectl

  • If you have an alias for kubectl, you can extend shell completion to work with that alias:

    echo 'alias k=kubectl' >>~/.bash_profile
echo 'complete -F __start_kubectl k' >>~/.bash_profile

  • If you installed kubectl with Homebrew (as explained here), then the kubectl completion script should already be in /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/kubectl. In that case, you don't need to do anything.

    Note: The Homebrew installation of bash-completion v2 sources all the files in the BASH_COMPLETION_COMPAT_DIR directory, that's why the latter two methods work.

In any case, after reloading your shell, kubectl completion should be working.

4.3 - kubectl-convert overview

A kubectl plugin that allows you to convert manifests from one version of a Kubernetes API to a different version.

A plugin for Kubernetes command-line tool kubectl, which allows you to convert manifests between different API versions. This can be particularly helpful to migrate manifests to a non-deprecated api version with newer Kubernetes release. For more info, visit migrate to non deprecated apis

4.4 - verify kubectl install

How to verify kubectl.

In order for kubectl to find and access a Kubernetes cluster, it needs a kubeconfig file, which is created automatically when you create a cluster using kube-up.sh or successfully deploy a Minikube cluster. By default, kubectl configuration is located at ~/.kube/config.

Check that kubectl is properly configured by getting the cluster state:

kubectl cluster-info

If you see a URL response, kubectl is correctly configured to access your cluster.

If you see a message similar to the following, kubectl is not configured correctly or is not able to connect to a Kubernetes cluster.

The connection to the server <server-name:port> was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

For example, if you are intending to run a Kubernetes cluster on your laptop (locally), you will need a tool like Minikube to be installed first and then re-run the commands stated above.

If kubectl cluster-info returns the url response but you can't access your cluster, to check whether it is configured properly, use:

kubectl cluster-info dump

4.5 - What's next?

What's next after installing kubectl.

4.6 - zsh auto-completion

Some optional configuration for zsh auto-completion.

The kubectl completion script for Zsh can be generated with the command kubectl completion zsh. Sourcing the completion script in your shell enables kubectl autocompletion.

To do so in all your shell sessions, add the following to your ~/.zshrc file:

source <(kubectl completion zsh)

If you have an alias for kubectl, you can extend shell completion to work with that alias:

echo 'alias k=kubectl' >>~/.zshrc
echo 'complete -F __start_kubectl k' >>~/.zshrc

After reloading your shell, kubectl autocompletion should be working.

If you get an error like complete:13: command not found: compdef, then add the following to the beginning of your ~/.zshrc file:

autoload -Uz compinit
compinit