Computer Notes/Kubernetes/Kubernetes Command-Line Cheat Sheet

Kubernetes Command-Line Cheat Sheet is a reference guide for standard operations using the kubectl command-line interface to manage Kubernetes clusters, workloads, and node infrastructure.

Cluster Context & Namespaces

Command	Description
kubectl config get-contexts	List all available cluster contexts.
kubectl config use-context <context-name>	Switch active cluster context.
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=<ns>	Set default namespace for current context.
kubectl get ns	List all namespaces in the cluster.

Viewing & Inspecting Resources

Command	Description
kubectl get pods -A	List all pods across all namespaces.
kubectl get pods -o wide	List pods with IP addresses and node assignments.
kubectl get all -n <namespace>	Show all active resources in a specific namespace.
kubectl describe <resource>/<name>	View detailed state, events, and configuration.
kubectl get <resource> <name> -o yaml	Export resource manifest to YAML format.

Deploying & Managing Workloads

Command	Description
kubectl apply -f <file.yaml>	Create or update resources declaratively.
kubectl delete -f <file.yaml>	Delete resources defined in a YAML manifest.
kubectl scale deploy/<name> --replicas=<N>	Scale the replica count of a Deployment.
kubectl rollout restart deploy/<name>	Perform a zero-downtime rolling restart.
kubectl rollout undo deploy/<name>	Roll back to the previous deployment revision.

Debugging & Observability

Command	Description
kubectl logs -f <pod-name>	Stream real-time logs from a pod container.
kubectl logs -p <pod-name>	View logs from a previous crashed container instance.
kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -- /bin/sh	Open an interactive shell inside a running pod.
kubectl port-forward svc/<name> 8080:80	Forward local port 8080 to cluster service port 80.
kubectl get events --sort-by='.metadata.creationTimestamp'	List recent cluster events sorted by timestamp.
kubectl top pods / kubectl top nodes	Display live CPU and memory metrics.

Node Operations & Maintenance

Command	Description
kubectl get nodes	List all cluster nodes and their current status.
kubectl cordon <node-name>	Mark a node as unschedulable.
kubectl drain <node-name> --ignore-daemonsets	Safely evict all pods before node maintenance.
kubectl uncordon <node-name>	Mark a node as schedulable again.

Essential Productivity Shell Shortcuts

Add these shortcuts to your shell profile (~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc) to speed up workflow:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"> alias k='kubectl' alias kgp='kubectl get pods' alias kgs='kubectl get svc' alias kgd='kubectl get deployments' alias kdp='kubectl describe pod' alias kl='kubectl logs -f' </syntaxhighlight>

See Also

• Kubernetes
• Secure Shell