KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes)
π kubectl config set π
okay bestie, welcome to the kubernetes manual page for kubectl config set. it's giving tiny command, big power. grab a strawberry π and let's do some kubeconfig surgery.
πΈ NAME πΈ
kubectl config set β Set an individual value in a kubeconfig file. literally just one value. that's the whole assignment. slay.
β¨ SYNOPSIS β¨
kubectl config set [OPTIONS]
π DESCRIPTION π
So you wanna change one little thing inside a kubeconfig file? that's the vibe. this is the command. π
PROPERTY_NAME is a dot delimited name where each token represents either an attribute name or a map key. and listen, this part is important: map keys may not contain dots. no dots in the map keys. none. not even one. π
PROPERTY_VALUE is the new value you want to set. now for the binary fields, like 'certificate-authority-data', they expect a base64 encoded string β unless you're using the --set-raw-bytes flag, in which case it doesn't. iykyk. π§
and here's the cute part: if you specify an attribute name that already exists, it will merge new fields on top of existing values. not overwrite, not delete, just layering. it's giving main character energy on top of your old data. β¨
π¦ OPTIONS π¦
--set-raw-bytes=falseβ when writing a[]bytePROPERTY_VALUE, write the given string directly, without base64 decoding it. no decoding, no detour, just vibes straight to disk. π₯
π₯ OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS π₯
these are the family traits, bestie β they come from the parent command, not from this one, but they work here too:
--as=""β Username to impersonate for the operation. User could be a regular user or a service account in a namespace.--as-group=[]β Group to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.--as-uid=""β UID to impersonate for the operation.--as-user-extra=[]β 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"β Default cache directory--certificate-authority=""β Path to a cert file for the certificate authority--client-certificate=""β Path to a client certificate file for TLS--client-key=""β Path to a client key file for TLS--cluster=""β The name of the kubeconfig cluster to use--context=""β The name of the kubeconfig context to use--disable-compression=falseβ If true, opt-out of response compression for all requests to the server--insecure-skip-tls-verify=falseβ If true, the server's certificate will not be checked for validity. This will make your HTTPS connections insecure--kubeconfig=""β use a particular kubeconfig file--kuberc=""β Path to the kuberc file to use for preferences. This can be disabled by exportingKUBECTL_KUBERC=falsefeature gate or turning off the featureKUBERC=off.--match-server-version=falseβ Require server version to match client version-n,--namespace=""β If present, the namespace scope for this CLI request--password=""β Password for basic authentication to the API server--profile="none"β Name of profile to capture. One of (none|cpu|heap|goroutine|threadcreate|block|mutex|trace)--profile-output="profile.pprof"β Name of the file to write the profile to--proxy-url=""β Proxy URL to use for requests to the API server--request-timeout="0"β 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.-s,--server=""β The address and port of the Kubernetes API server--tls-server-name=""β Server name to use for server certificate validation. If it is not provided, the hostname used to contact the server is used--token=""β Bearer token for authentication to the API server--user=""β The name of the kubeconfig user to use--username=""β Username for basic authentication to the API server--version=falseβ--version,--version=rawprints version information and quits;--version=vX.Y.Z...sets the reported version--warnings-as-errors=falseβ Treat warnings received from the server as errors and exit with a non-zero exit code
heads up bestie: --insecure-skip-tls-verify=true means the server's certificate is not checked for validity, and that makes your HTTPS connections insecure. that's not a cute risk, that's a real one. π
π EXAMPLE π
the receipts, straight from the source, no edits:
# Set the server field on the my-cluster cluster to https://1.2.3.4
kubectl config set clusters.my-cluster.server https://1.2.3.4
# Set the certificate-authority-data field on the my-cluster cluster
kubectl config set clusters.my-cluster.certificate-authority-data $(echo "cert_data_here" | base64 -i -)
# Set the cluster field in the my-context context to my-cluster
kubectl config set contexts.my-context.cluster my-cluster
# Set the client-key-data field in the cluster-admin user using --set-raw-bytes option
kubectl config set users.cluster-admin.client-key-data cert_data_here --set-raw-bytes=true
look at those dot delimited names. <pink>clusters</pink>.<pink>my-cluster</pink>.<pink>server</pink> β beautiful. periodt. π
π SEE ALSO π
π HISTORY π
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! π¦
and that's the whole page, bestie. this one came out of the kubernetes manual β section 1, the Manuals collection, filed under User β dated Jan 2015, with the header credit to Eric Paris. go forth and set exactly one value at a time. you got this. π«Άβ¨
π¦ where this page comes from
- arch rolling: kubectl 1.37.2-1 Β· Apache-2.0
- fedora 43: kubernetes1.37-client 1.37.0-3.fc43
- fedora 43: kubernetes1.37-client 1.37.1-1.fc43 Β· Apache-2.0 AND BSD-2-Clause AND BSD-3-Clause AND BSD-3-Clause-HP AND CC-BY-4.0 AND ISC AND MIT AND MPL-2.0
- fedora 44: kubernetes1.37-client 1.37.0-3.fc44
- fedora 44: kubernetes1.37-client 1.37.1-1.fc44 Β· Apache-2.0 AND BSD-2-Clause AND BSD-3-Clause AND BSD-3-Clause-HP AND CC-BY-4.0 AND ISC AND MIT AND MPL-2.0
- nixpkgs unstable: kubectl 1.37.2
- π girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms