KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes)
π KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes) π
okay bestie, welcome to the KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes) manual β this one's by Eric Paris, Jan 2015, and it's all about one very specific lil' glow-up: kubectl set subject. it does exactly one thing and it does it slay. let's get into it π«Ά
β¨ NAME β¨
kubectl set subject β Update the user, group, or service account in a role binding or cluster role binding
like. it changes who is bound. that's the whole vibe. π«
π¦ SYNOPSIS π¦
kubectl set subject [OPTIONS]
πΈ DESCRIPTION πΈ
Update the user, group, or service account in a role binding or cluster role binding.
that's it, that's the girl. you point her at a binding and you're like "hey, these people/accounts are in this now" and she's like "say less" and does it. π
π OPTIONS π
--all=falseβ select all the resources, but only within the namespace of the resource types you named. no cap, it's scoped.--allow-missing-template-keys=trueβ when it'strue, template errors about a missing field or map key just... get ignored, bestie. π only applies to thegolangandjsonpathoutput formats, so don't get any ideas elsewhere.--dry-run="none"β has to be"none","server", or"client". with theclientstrategy she only prints the object she would have sent β never sends it. withservershe submits a server-side request but doesn't persist the resource. a lil dress rehearsal, no commitment. π--field-manager="kubectl-set"β the name of the manager used to track field ownership. that's the label on who touched what.-f,--filename=[]β filename, directory, or URL to files the resource to update the subjects. give her a path, she'll find it.--group=[]β groups to bind to the role.-k,--kustomize=""β process the kustomization directory. β οΈ this flag can't be used together with-for-Rβ pick a lane, babe.--local=falseβ iftrue, set subject will NOT contact api-server but run locally. offline mode, main character energy. π§-o,--output=""β output format. one of: (json,yaml,kyaml,name,go-template,go-template-file,template,templatefile,jsonpath,jsonpath-as-json,jsonpath-file).-R,--recursive=falseβ process the directory used in-f,--filenamerecursively. super useful when you want to manage related manifests organized within the same directory. π-l,--selector=""β selector (label query) to filter on, supports'=','==','!=','in','notin'. (e.g.-l key1=value1,key2=value2,key3 in (value3)). matching objects must satisfy all of the specified label constraints β she's picky and we love that.--serviceaccount=[]β service accounts to bind to the role.--show-managed-fields=falseβ iftrue, keep themanagedFieldswhen printing objects in JSON or YAML format. receipts stay visible. π§Ύ--template=""β 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].--user=[]β usernames to bind to the role.
π OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS π
these are the ones she got from her mom kubectl. still iconic.
--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 iftrue, opt-out of response compression for all requests to the server.--insecure-skip-tls-verify=falseβ iftrue, the server's certificate will not be checked for validity. π¨ this will make your HTTPS connections insecure β like, genuinely insecure, not a cute lil insecure. be careful.--kubeconfig=""β path to the kubeconfig file to use for CLI requests.--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.--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€ zero tolerance policy, honestly.
π₯ EXAMPLE π₯
okay here's the part where she eats. π
# Update a cluster role binding for serviceaccount1
kubectl set subject clusterrolebinding admin --serviceaccount=namespace:serviceaccount1
# Update a role binding for user1, user2, and group1
kubectl set subject rolebinding admin --user=user1 --user=user2 --group=group1
# Print the result (in YAML format) of updating rolebinding subjects from a local, without hitting the server
kubectl create rolebinding admin --role=admin --user=admin -o yaml --dry-run=client | kubectl set subject --local -f - --user=foo -o yaml
that last one is the pipe dream (literally, it's a pipe π) β --local + -f - means she never even phones the server. obsessed.
π SEE ALSO π
go read her sister page, she's also great.
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!
and that's the whole page, bestie π this was the Manuals / User one, dated KUBERNETES(1)(kubernetes) β so go forth, bind those subjects, and remember: --insecure-skip-tls-verify is not the vibe. mwah. πβ¨π¦
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