KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes)

💅 KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes) 💅

okay bestie, welcome to the kubectl corner of the kubernetes manual — this page got written by Eric Paris back in Jan 2015 and it has been carrying the secret-making torch ever since 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

kubectl create secret generic — create a secret from a local file, a directory, or a literal value. yes queen, all three, pick your fighter 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

kubectl create secret generic [OPTIONS]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So you wanna make a secret based on a file, a directory, or a literal value you just typed out. iconic.

One single secret can absolutely package one or more key/value pairs. it's a whole bundle, not a one-trick pony ✨

When you build a secret from a file, the key defaults to the basename of the file, and the value defaults to the file's content. if that basename is an invalid key, or you just wanna choose your own (main character energy), you're allowed to specify an alternate key. slay.

When you build a secret from a directory, every file in there whose basename is a valid key gets packaged into the secret. literally everything else gets ignored — and by everything else we mean any directory entries that aren't regular files, like subdirectories, symlinks, devices, pipes, etc. 💀 not invited to the party.

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• --allow-missing-template-keys=true — if true, it just ignores any errors in templates when a field or map key is missing from the template. heads up tho, this only applies to the golang and jsonpath output formats.
• --append-hash=false — append a hash of the secret to its name. cute little fingerprint 🫶
• --dry-run="none" — must be "none", "server", or "client". if it's the client strategy, it only prints the object that would be sent, without actually sending it. if it's the server strategy, it submits the server-side request without persisting the resource. ghosting the cluster, respectfully.
• --field-manager="kubectl-create" — the name of the manager used to track field ownership.
• --from-env-file=[] — specify the path to a file to read lines of key=val pairs from, to create a secret.
• --from-file=[] — key files can be specified using their file path, in which case a default name gets given to them; or optionally with a name and a file path, in which case the given name is used. specifying a directory iterates each named file in the directory that is a valid secret key.
• --from-literal=[] — specify a key and a literal value to insert into the secret (i.e. mykey=somevalue). typing secrets out loud, bold move 💅
• -o, --output="" — output format. one of: (json, yaml, kyaml, name, go-template, go-template-file, template, templatefile, jsonpath, jsonpath-as-json, jsonpath-file).
• --save-config=false — if true, the configuration of the current object gets saved in its annotation. otherwise the annotation stays unchanged. this flag is useful when you wanna perform kubectl apply on this object in the future. future-proofing, we love to see it ✨
• --show-managed-fields=false — if true, it keeps the managedFields when printing objects in JSON or YAML format.
• --template="" — template string or path to a template file to use when -o=go-template, -o=go-template-file. the template format is golang templates [http://golang.org/pkg/text/template/#pkg-overview].
• --type="" — the type of secret to create.
• --validate="strict" — must be one of: strict (or true), warn, ignore (or false). "true" or "strict" will use a schema to validate the input and fail the request if it's invalid — it performs server side validation if ServerSideFieldValidation is enabled on the api-server, but falls back to less reliable client-side validation if it's not. "warn" will warn about unknown or duplicate fields without blocking the request if server-side field validation is enabled on the API server, and behaves as "ignore" otherwise. "false" or "ignore" will not perform any schema validation at all, and will silently drop any unknown or duplicate fields. no cap, that's the whole spectrum 😭

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👑 OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS 👑

these ones came from the parent commands, they're basically the family heirlooms 🧚

• --as="" — username to impersonate for the operation. the 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 so careful with this one 🙈
• --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 the 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. commitment issues? valid 💀
• -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.

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🔥 EXAMPLE 🔥

the receipts, bestie — every command copied exactly ✨

# Create a new secret named my-secret with keys for each file in folder bar
kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-file=path/to/bar

# Create a new secret named my-secret with specified keys instead of names on disk
kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-file=ssh-privatekey=path/to/id_rsa --from-file=ssh-publickey=path/to/id_rsa.pub

# Create a new secret named my-secret with key1=supersecret and key2=topsecret
kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-literal=key1=supersecret --from-literal=key2=topsecret

# Create a new secret named my-secret using a combination of a file and a literal
kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-file=ssh-privatekey=path/to/id_rsa --from-literal=passphrase=topsecret

# Create a new secret named my-secret from env files
kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-env-file=path/to/foo.env --from-env-file=path/to/bar.env

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• kubectl-create-secret(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! obsessed with the honesty honestly 😭

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and that's a wrap, bestie 🎀 this whole page lives in the KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes) manual, in the Manuals section, filed under User — written up back in January 2015. go make some secrets, but like, safely 💖✨🦋