KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes)

👑 KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes) — the manual, but make it make sense

okay bestie, gather round, because this is kubectl patch and she is that girl. this page lives in the kubernetes manual, section 1, and it's about the one command that lets you go in and surgically edit fields on a resource instead of nuking and recreating the whole thing. iconic behavior honestly. 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

kubectl patch — update fields of a resource

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

kubectl patch [OPTIONS]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so basically you're updating fields of a resource, and you get to choose your weapon: strategic merge patch, a JSON merge patch, or a JSON patch. pick your fighter 💖

Both JSON and YAML formats are accepted. yes queen, either one, we're flexible.

⚠️ Note, and this one matters: Strategic merge patch is not supported for custom resources. periodt. don't try it, she will not answer.

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🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

• --allow-missing-template-keys=true — if true, ignore any errors in templates when a field or map key is missing in the template. Only applies to golang and jsonpath output formats. (so she only cares about those two, not everybody)
• --dry-run="none" — must be "none", "server", or "client". if it's the client strategy, only print the object that would be sent, without sending it. if it's the server strategy, submit a server-side request without persisting the resource. peek behind the curtain without touching anything 🫣
• --field-manager="kubectl-patch" — name of the manager used to track field ownership.
• -f, --filename=[] — filename, directory, or URL to files identifying the resource to update.
• -k, --kustomize="" — process the kustomization directory. this flag can't be used together with -f or -R. pick a lane babe.
• --local=false — if true, patch will operate on the content of the file, not the server-side resource.
• -o, --output="" — output format. one of: (json, yaml, kyaml, name, go-template, go-template-file, template, templatefile, jsonpath, jsonpath-as-json, jsonpath-file).
• -p, --patch="" — the patch to be applied to the resource JSON file.
• --patch-file="" — a file containing a patch to be applied to the resource.
• --record=false — record current kubectl command in the resource annotation. if set to false, do not record the command. if set to true, record the command. if not set, default to updating the existing annotation value only if one already exists. (she's lowkey mysterious like that)
• -R, --recursive=false — process the directory used in -f, --filename recursively. useful when you want to manage related manifests organized within the same directory.
• --show-managed-fields=false — if true, keep the managedFields when printing objects in JSON or YAML format.
• --subresource="" — if specified, patch will operate on the subresource of the requested object.
• --template="" — template string or path to 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="strategic" — the type of patch being provided; one of [json merge strategic]

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💜 OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS 💜

these are the family heirlooms, passed down from the parent command, and yes you get all of them:

• --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 😭 so like, be careful bestie.
• --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.
• -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. she said no more warning labels, we're going full consequences 💀

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🌈 EXAMPLE 🌈

okay here's the receipts, copy these, they're giving main character energy:

# Partially update a node using a strategic merge patch, specifying the patch as JSON
kubectl patch node k8s-node-1 -p '{"spec":{"unschedulable":true}}'

# Partially update a node using a strategic merge patch, specifying the patch as YAML
kubectl patch node k8s-node-1 -p $'spec:\n unschedulable: true'

# Partially update a node identified by the type and name specified in "node.json" using strategic merge patch
kubectl patch -f node.json -p '{"spec":{"unschedulable":true}}'

# Update a container's image; spec.containers[*].name is required because it's a merge key
kubectl patch pod valid-pod -p '{"spec":{"containers":[{"name":"kubernetes-serve-hostname","image":"new image"}]}}'

# Update a container's image using a JSON patch with positional arrays
kubectl patch pod valid-pod --type='json' -p='[{"op": "replace", "path": "/spec/containers/0/image", "value":"new image"}]'

# Update a deployment's replicas through the 'scale' subresource using a merge patch
kubectl patch deployment nginx-deployment --subresource='scale' --type='merge' -p '{"spec":{"replicas":2}}'

🔥 note that spec.containers[*].name is required because it's a merge key. that's not a vibe, that's a requirement.

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🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

• kubectl(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! (her words, not mine 😭)

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and that's the whole page bestie, no cap. this gem came to you from the Manuals shelf, User section, page KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes), with Eric Paris's original January 2015 date still holding it down. go patch something cute 💖✨🎀