cheatsheet.md

This cheatsheet contains a list of most common commands you will use when working with Kubernetes cluster and its resources.

If you're working with Kubernetes on daily basis or if you're just learning about Kubernetes you will run into a set of commands that are used often than the other commands. The ones used more often are also usually easy to remember (especially if you're typing them out multiple times a day).

The problem becomes when you're either trying to do something more advanced or run a command against a resource you're aren't using very often or not too familiar with it. This is where this cheatsheet comes into play - it will help you quickly find the command you want, so you can copy & paste it, run it and move on.

You can bookmark this page and return to it any time you're feeling stuck.

How to use this kubectl Cheatsheet

Welcome to the kubectl cheatsheet. This cheatsheet is organized into multiple sections that are based on the actions you are trying to perform against Kubernetes resources. Each section contains a table with the command and the explanation of what that command does.

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. The basics
3. Basic resource information
4. Detailed resource information
5. Sorting and filtering resources
6. Labelling and annotating resources
7. Creating, editing and deleting resources
8. Resource names
9. Conclusion

Introduction

Welcome friends! I am glad you've decided to either learn more about kubectl or just trying to find some useful commands or ideas. First things first - since you're here, I am assuming you have a Kubernetes cluster running and have access to it and you also have kubectl installed.

The basics

The commands in this cheatsheet are all using the full name of the Kubernetes CLI - kubectl. If you'll be working with Kubernetes often, I strongly advise you to create an alias for that command - it will save you a lot of typing in the long run. If you want to take this to another level, check out this set of Kubectl aliases.

To create an alias for kubectl, you can run the following command:

alias k='kubectl'

Or just put it directly in your ~/.bash_profile file:

echo "alias k='kubectl'" >> ~/.bash_profile

In most of the example below, I am using a pod resource as an example - you can replace pod with any other Kubernetes resource (unless the commnd is specific to that one reasource only).

I am also using the full resource names such as pod, deployment etc. but you don't have to. Refer to the Resource names section for short resource names such as po, svc or deploy.

Let's get started!

Basic resource information

Command	Explanation
kubectl get pod mypod	Lists the pod with name mypod in the current namespace
kubectl get pod	Lists all pods in the current namespace
kubectl get pod -n mynamespace	Lists all pods in mynamespace namespace
kubectl get pod --all-namespaces	Lists all pods in all namespaces
kubectl get pod --all-namespaces -o wide	Lists all pods in all namespaces with IP and Node
kubectl get all --all-namespaces	Lists all resources in the cluster
kubectl describe pod mypod	Describes the resource in mor details (perfect for diagnosing issues)
kubectl get pod --show-labels	Shows the labels next to all pods
kubectl explain pod	Shows documentation for the resource (e.g. pod in our case)
kubectl get pod mypod -o yaml	Shows the YAML representation of the pod called mypod
kubectl get pod mypod -o json	Shows the JSON representation of the pod called mypod
kubectl cluster-info	Shows information about the cluster
kubectl describe	Lists all resource names
kubectl get pod -w	Watches the pods (useful when waiting for e.g. pods to start)

Note 1: replace the pod in above commands with any other resource (e.g. service, deployment, ...)

Note 2: use the short name for resources. For example: po for pods, svc for service, deploy for deployment, etc.

Detailed resource information

Command	Explanation
kubectl get pod --selector="app=myapp"	Lists all pods with label app=myapp
kubectl get pod --selector="app=myapp" -o jsonpath='{.items[*].metadata.name}'	Get the pod names that have the label app=myapp set
kubectl get pod --selector="app=myapp" -o jsonpath='{.items[*].spec.containers[*].image}'	Get the image names of pods that have the label app=myapp set
kubectl get pod mypod -o jsonpath='{.items[*].status.podIP}'	Get the pod IPs of the mypod
kubectl get pod mypod -o jsonpath='{.spec.containers[0].ports[0].containerPort}'	Get the first container port in the pod
kubectl -v 9 get pod	Gets the pods with maximum (9) verbosity

Sorting and filtering

Command	Explanation
kubectl get pod --sory-by=.metadata.name	Lists the pods and sorts them by their names
kubectl get pod --sory-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp	Lists the pods by creation time, oldest first
kubectl get pod -l app=myapp	Show pods that have the label app=myapp set

Labelling and annotating resources

Command	Explanation
kubectl label pod mypod mylabel=myvalue	Adds the label mylabel=myvalue to the pod named mypod
kubectl label pod mypod mylabel-	Removes the mylabel from the pod named mypod
kubectl get pod mypod -o jsonpath='{.items[*].metadata.annotations}'	Get all annotations for the pod named mypod
kubectl annotate pod mypod name=value	Add an annotation name=value to the pod named mypod
kubectl annotate pod mypod name-	Removes the annotation name from the pod named mypod

Creating, editing and deleting resources

Command	Explanation
kubectl create -f ./file.yaml	Create resources defined in file file.yaml
kubectl delete -f ./file.yaml	Delete resources defined in file file.yaml
kubectl delete pod mypod	Delete a pod named mypod in the current namespace
kubectl run mypod --image=myimage	Creates a pod (and deployment) called mypod with image myimage
kubectl run mypod --image=myimage --port=8080	Creates a pod (and deployment) called mypod with image myimage and exposes port 8080

Advanced commands

Command	Explanation
kubectl run curl --image=radial/busyboxplus:curl -i --tty	Runs the radial/busyboxplus:curl image and gives you a terminal into it (useful for accessing pods/services within the cluster)
kubectl port-forward mypod 8080:CONTAINER_PORT	Forwards the local port 8080 to CONTAINER_PORT (replace this with actual container port number)
kubectl expose deployment mydeployment --type="NodePort" --port 8080	Exposes deployment mydeployment to external traffic and makes it available on port 8080
kubectl exec -it mypod -- /bin/bash	Runs the /bin/bash (terminal) inside the pod called mypod
kubectl attach mypod	Watch the standard output of a container in real time
kubectl cp mypod:/some/path/file.txt .	Copies the file /some/path/file.txt from mypod to the current directory

Resource names

Here's the list of all Kubernetes resource names and their shorthand equivalents (if available).

Note: you also run kubectl describe to get a list of these.

Long name	Short name
all
certificatesigningrequests	csr
clusterrolebindings
clusterroles
componentstatuses	cs
configmaps	cm
controllerrevisions
cronjobs
customresourcedefinition	crd
daemonsets	ds
deployments	deploy
endpoints	ep
events	ev
horizontalpodautoscalers	hpa
ingresses	ing, ingress
jobs
limitranges	limits
namepsaces	ns
networkpolicies	netpol
nodes	no
persistentvolumeclaims	pvc
persistentvolumes	pv
poddisruptionbudgets	pdb
podpreset
pods	po, pod
podsecuritypolicies	psp
podtemplates
replicasets	rs
replicationcontrollers	rc
resourcequotas	quota
rolebindings
roles
secrets
serviceaccounts	sa
services	svc
statefulsets	sts
storageclasses	sc