KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes)
π KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes) π
okay bestie, grab a boba because we're about to read the manual page for kubectl config, and I promise it's gonna be cute AND useful. This one's from Eric Paris, dated Jan 2015 (a whole legend), and it lives in section 1 of the kubernetes manual. Let's go π
β¨ NAME β¨
kubectl config β modify kubeconfig files
no cap, that's it. that's the whole job. it edits your kubeconfig files π
πΈ SYNOPSIS πΈ
kubectl config [OPTIONS]
π¦ DESCRIPTION π¦
You modify your kubeconfig files using subcommands, like this iconic lil number:
kubectl config set current-context my-context
now here's the tea about the loading order β the way kubectl figures out which files to read follows these rules, and you're gonna wanna memorize them fr fr:
- If the
--kubeconfigflag is set, then only that file is loaded. The flag may only be set once and no merging takes place. periodt, one file, that's it. - If the
$KUBECONFIGenvironment variable is set, then it's used as a list of paths (using the normal path delimiting rules for your system). These paths get merged. When a value is modified, it's modified in the file that defines the stanza. When a value is created, it's created in the first file that exists. And if no files in the chain exist? Then it creates the last file in the list. the audacity, honestly π - Otherwise,
${HOME}/.kube/configis used and no merging takes place.
π OPTIONS π
--kubeconfig=""β use a particular kubeconfig file ποΈ
π OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS π
these are the ones you get from the parent command, and there are a LOT, so hydrate before reading:
--as=""β Username to impersonate for the operation. User could be a regular user or a service account in a namespace. π--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 ποΈ--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. π¨ bestie this one is literally the "trust me bro" flag, say it with me: insecure.--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) π--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. β³-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 π€
π SEE ALSO π
the whole friend group, iykyk:
kubectl(1)kubectl-config-current-context(1)kubectl-config-delete-cluster(1)kubectl-config-delete-context(1)kubectl-config-delete-user(1)kubectl-config-get-clusters(1)kubectl-config-get-contexts(1)kubectl-config-get-users(1)kubectl-config-rename-context(1)kubectl-config-set(1)kubectl-config-set-cluster(1)kubectl-config-set-context(1)kubectl-config-set-credentials(1)kubectl-config-unset(1)kubectl-config-use-context(1)kubectl-config-view(1)
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! πβ¨
okay that's the whole page, you ate that π«Ά this came to you from the Manuals / User corner of the world, under KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes), and we're signing off with all the love, a lil sparkle, and a reminder that ${HOME}/.kube/config is always waiting for you πΈπ bye bestie!!
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