KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes)

💖 KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes) 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're reading the KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes) manual together and it's giving essential. this one was written by Eric Paris back in Jan 2015 and it's still serving looks. let's go 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

kubectl auth can-i — check whether an action is allowed 👑

like… can i do the thing? this command tells you. no cap.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

kubectl auth can-i [OPTIONS]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

check whether an action is allowed. that's it, that's the whole vibe. 💅

now let's decode the little puzzle pieces, because this command speaks in Very Specific Words:

• VERB is a logical Kubernetes API verb, like get, list, watch, delete, etc. yk, the doing-words.
• TYPE is a Kubernetes resource.
• Shortcuts and groups will be resolved. so you can be lazy and it'll still figure out what you meant. iconic behavior honestly.
• NONRESOURCEURL is a partial URL that starts with /. yes, with the slash, don't forget the slash, she's picky.
• NAME is the name of a particular Kubernetes resource.

also!! this command pairs nicely with impersonation. see the --as global flag. it's literally a match made in heaven 🥰

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💜 OPTIONS 💜

• -A, --all-namespaces=false — if true, check the specified action in all namespaces. all of them. every single one. 🌈
• --list=false — if true, prints all allowed actions. the whole menu, chef's kiss.
• --no-headers=false — if true, prints allowed actions without headers. minimalism era ✨
• -q, --quiet=false — if true, suppress output and just return the exit code. silent but deadly, she says nothing and lets the exit code do the talking 🤫
• --subresource="" — SubResource, such as pod/log or deployment/scale. the little sub-plot of your resource 🎀

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👑 OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS 👑

these are the ones you didn't ask for but got anyway, like a group chat you never left:

• --as="" — username to impersonate for the operation. user could be a regular user or a service account in a namespace.
• --as-group=[] — group to impersonate for the operation. this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.
• --as-uid="" — UID to impersonate for the operation.
• --as-user-extra=[] — user extras to impersonate for the operation. this flag can be repeated to specify multiple values for the same key.
• --cache-dir="/home/username/.kube/cache" — default cache directory.
• --certificate-authority="" — path to a cert file for the certificate authority.
• --client-certificate="" — path to a client certificate file for TLS.
• --client-key="" — path to a client key file for TLS.
• --cluster="" — the name of the kubeconfig cluster to use.
• --context="" — the name of the kubeconfig context to use.
• --disable-compression=false — if true, opt-out of response compression for all requests to the server.
• --insecure-skip-tls-verify=false — if true, the server's certificate will not be checked for validity. this will make your HTTPS connections insecure. 🚨 bestie. be careful with this one, fr fr.
• --kubeconfig="" — path to the kubeconfig file to use for CLI requests.
• --kuberc="" — path to the kuberc file to use for preferences. this can be disabled by exporting KUBECTL_KUBERC=false feature gate or turning off the feature KUBERC=off.
• --match-server-version=false — require server version to match client version.
• -n, --namespace="" — if present, the namespace scope for this CLI request.
• --password="" — password for basic authentication to the API server.
• --profile="none" — name of profile to capture. one of (none|cpu|heap|goroutine|threadcreate|block|mutex|trace).
• --profile-output="profile.pprof" — name of the file to write the profile to.
• --proxy-url="" — proxy URL to use for requests to the API server.
• --request-timeout="0" — the length of time to wait before giving up on a single server request. non-zero values should contain a corresponding time unit (e.g. 1s, 2m, 3h). a value of zero means don't timeout requests. she's patient, she'll wait 💜
• -s, --server="" — the address and port of the Kubernetes API server.
• --tls-server-name="" — server name to use for server certificate validation. if it is not provided, the hostname used to contact the server is used.
• --token="" — bearer token for authentication to the API server.
• --user="" — the name of the kubeconfig user to use.
• --username="" — username for basic authentication to the API server.
• --version=false — --version, --version=raw prints version information and quits; --version=vX.Y.Z... sets the reported version.
• --warnings-as-errors=false — treat warnings received from the server as errors and exit with a non-zero exit code. warnings get promoted to full-time drama 💀

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🌟 EXAMPLE 🌟

here's the whole mood board, copy-paste ready, exact as written:

# Check to see if I can create pods in any namespace
kubectl auth can-i create pods --all-namespaces

# Check to see if I can list deployments in my current namespace
kubectl auth can-i list deployments.apps

# Check to see if service account "foo" of namespace "dev" can list pods in the namespace "prod"
# You must be allowed to use impersonation for the global option "--as"
kubectl auth can-i list pods --as=system:serviceaccount:dev:foo -n prod

# Check to see if I can do everything in my current namespace ("*" means all)
kubectl auth can-i '*' '*'

# Check to see if I can get the job named "bar" in namespace "foo"
kubectl auth can-i list jobs.batch/bar -n foo

# Check to see if I can read pod logs
kubectl auth can-i get pods --subresource=log

# Check to see if I can access the URL /logs/
kubectl auth can-i get /logs/

# Check to see if I can approve certificates.k8s.io
kubectl auth can-i approve certificates.k8s.io

# List all allowed actions in namespace "foo"
kubectl auth can-i --list --namespace=foo

note that one about impersonation: you must be allowed to use impersonation for the global option --as. it's not a freebie, bestie. 🙈

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🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

• kubectl-auth(1)

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🧚 HISTORY 🧚

January 2015, originally compiled by Eric Paris (eparis at redhat dot com) based on the kubernetes source material, but hopefully they have been automatically generated since! ✨

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and that's the whole page, you ate it, you understood it, periodt. 💅🌸

sign-off, bestie: this came out of the Manuals collection, in the User section, for KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes). go forth and can-i responsibly. 🫶💖