Install and Set Up kubectl on macOS

    The following methods exist for installing kubectl on macOS:

    1. Download the latest release:

      2.    curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl"

      Note:

      To download a specific version, replace the $(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt) portion of the command with the specific version.

      For example, to download version v1.27.0 on Intel macOS, type:

      1. curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.27.0/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl"

      And for macOS on Apple Silicon, type:

      1. curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.27.0/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl"

    2. Validate the binary (optional)

      Download the kubectl checksum file:

      2.    curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl.sha256"
      2.    curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl.sha256"

      Validate the kubectl binary against the checksum file:

      1. echo "$(cat kubectl.sha256)  kubectl" | shasum -a 256 --check

      If valid, the output is:

        If the check fails, shasum exits with nonzero status and prints output similar to:

        1. kubectl: FAILED
        2. shasum: WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match

        Note: Download the same version of the binary and checksum.

      1. Make the kubectl binary executable.

        1. chmod +x ./kubectl

      2. Move the kubectl binary to a file location on your system PATH.

        1. sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
        2. sudo chown root: /usr/local/bin/kubectl

        Note: Make sure /usr/local/bin is in your PATH environment variable.

      3. Test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date:

        1. kubectl version --client

        Note:

        The above command will generate a warning:

        1. WARNING: This version information is deprecated and will be replaced with the output from kubectl version --short.

        You can ignore this warning. You are only checking the version of kubectl that you have installed.

        Or use this for detailed view of version:

        1. kubectl version --client --output=yaml

      4. After installing the plugin, clean up the installation files:

        1. rm kubectl kubectl.sha256

      Install with Homebrew on macOS

      If you are on macOS and using Homebrew package manager, you can install kubectl with Homebrew.

      1. Run the installation command:

        or

        1. brew install kubernetes-cli

      2. Test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date:

        1. kubectl version --client

      Install with Macports on macOS

      1. Run the installation command:

        2. sudo port install kubectl

      2. Test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date:

        1. kubectl version --client

      In order for kubectl to find and access a Kubernetes cluster, it needs a , which is created automatically when you create a cluster using kube-up.sh or successfully deploy a Minikube cluster. By default, kubectl configuration is located at ~/.kube/config.

      Check that kubectl is properly configured by getting the cluster state:

      1. kubectl cluster-info

      If you see a URL response, kubectl is correctly configured to access your cluster.

      If you see a message similar to the following, kubectl is not configured correctly or is not able to connect to a Kubernetes cluster.

      1. The connection to the server <server-name:port> was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

      For example, if you are intending to run a Kubernetes cluster on your laptop (locally), you will need a tool like Minikube to be installed first and then re-run the commands stated above.

      If kubectl cluster-info returns the url response but you can’t access your cluster, to check whether it is configured properly, use:

      1. kubectl cluster-info dump

      kubectl provides autocompletion support for Bash, Zsh, Fish, and PowerShell which can save you a lot of typing.

      Below are the procedures to set up autocompletion for Bash, Fish, and Zsh.

      Introduction

      The kubectl completion script for Bash can be generated with kubectl completion bash. Sourcing this script in your shell enables kubectl completion.

      However, the kubectl completion script depends on which you thus have to previously install.

      Warning: There are two versions of bash-completion, v1 and v2. V1 is for Bash 3.2 (which is the default on macOS), and v2 is for Bash 4.1+. The kubectl completion script doesn’t work correctly with bash-completion v1 and Bash 3.2. It requires bash-completion v2 and Bash 4.1+. Thus, to be able to correctly use kubectl completion on macOS, you have to install and use Bash 4.1+ (instructions). The following instructions assume that you use Bash 4.1+ (that is, any Bash version of 4.1 or newer).

      Upgrade Bash

      The instructions here assume you use Bash 4.1+. You can check your Bash’s version by running:

      1. echo $BASH_VERSION

      If it is too old, you can install/upgrade it using Homebrew:

      1. brew install bash

      Reload your shell and verify that the desired version is being used:

      1. echo $BASH_VERSION $SHELL

      Homebrew usually installs it at /usr/local/bin/bash.

      Note: As mentioned, these instructions assume you use Bash 4.1+, which means you will install bash-completion v2 (in contrast to Bash 3.2 and bash-completion v1, in which case kubectl completion won’t work).

      You can test if you have bash-completion v2 already installed with type _init_completion. If not, you can install it with Homebrew:

      1. brew install bash-completion@2

      As stated in the output of this command, add the following to your ~/.bash_profile file:

      1. brew_etc="$(brew --prefix)/etc" && [[ -r "${brew_etc}/profile.d/bash_completion.sh" ]] && . "${brew_etc}/profile.d/bash_completion.sh"

      Reload your shell and verify that bash-completion v2 is correctly installed with type _init_completion.

      Enable kubectl autocompletion

      You now have to ensure that the kubectl completion script gets sourced in all your shell sessions. There are multiple ways to achieve this:

      • Source the completion script in your ~/.bash_profile file:

        1. echo 'source <(kubectl completion bash)' >>~/.bash_profile

      • Add the completion script to the /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d directory:

        1. kubectl completion bash >/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/kubectl

      • Note: The Homebrew installation of bash-completion v2 sources all the files in the BASH_COMPLETION_COMPAT_DIR directory, that’s why the latter two methods work.

      In any case, after reloading your shell, kubectl completion should be working.

      Note: Autocomplete for Fish requires kubectl 1.23 or later.

      The kubectl completion script for Fish can be generated with the command kubectl completion fish. Sourcing the completion script in your shell enables kubectl autocompletion.

      To do so in all your shell sessions, add the following line to your ~/.config/fish/config.fish file:

      1. kubectl completion fish | source

      After reloading your shell, kubectl autocompletion should be working.

      The kubectl completion script for Zsh can be generated with the command kubectl completion zsh. Sourcing the completion script in your shell enables kubectl autocompletion.

      To do so in all your shell sessions, add the following to your file:

      1. source <(kubectl completion zsh)

      If you have an alias for kubectl, kubectl autocompletion will automatically work with it.

      After reloading your shell, kubectl autocompletion should be working.

      If you get an error like 2: command not found: compdef, then add the following to the beginning of your ~/.zshrc file:

      1. autoload -Uz compinit
      2. compinit

      Install kubectl convert plugin

      A plugin for Kubernetes command-line tool kubectl, which allows you to convert manifests between different API versions. This can be particularly helpful to migrate manifests to a non-deprecated api version with newer Kubernetes release. For more info, visit

      1. Download the latest release with the command:

        2.    curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl-convert"
        2.    curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl-convert"

      2. Validate the binary (optional)

        Download the kubectl-convert checksum file:

        2.    curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl-convert.sha256"
        2.    curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl-convert.sha256"

        Validate the kubectl-convert binary against the checksum file:

        1. echo "$(cat kubectl-convert.sha256)  kubectl-convert" | shasum -a 256 --check

        If valid, the output is:

        1. kubectl-convert: OK

        If the check fails, shasum exits with nonzero status and prints output similar to:

        1. kubectl-convert: FAILED
        2. shasum: WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match

        Note: Download the same version of the binary and checksum.

      3. Make kubectl-convert binary executable

        1. chmod +x ./kubectl-convert

      4. Move the kubectl-convert binary to a file location on your system PATH.

        1. sudo mv ./kubectl-convert /usr/local/bin/kubectl-convert
        2. sudo chown root: /usr/local/bin/kubectl-convert

        Note: Make sure /usr/local/bin is in your PATH environment variable.

      5. Verify plugin is successfully installed

        1. kubectl convert --help

        If you do not see an error, it means the plugin is successfully installed.

      6. After installing the plugin, clean up the installation files: