kubectl explain

Synopsis

Describe fields and structure of various resources.

This command describes the fields associated with each supported API resource. Fields are identified via a simple JSONPath identifier:

    &lt;type&gt;.&lt;fieldName&gt;[.&lt;fieldName&gt;]

Information about each field is retrieved from the server in OpenAPI format.

Use "kubectl api-resources" for a complete list of supported resources.

kubectl explain TYPE [--recursive=FALSE|TRUE] [--api-version=api-version-group] [-o|--output=plaintext|plaintext-openapiv2]

Examples

  # Get the documentation of the resource and its fields
  kubectl explain pods
  
  # Get all the fields in the resource
  kubectl explain pods --recursive
  
  # Get the explanation for deployment in supported api versions
  kubectl explain deployments --api-version=apps/v1
  
  # Get the documentation of a specific field of a resource
  kubectl explain pods.spec.containers
  
  # Get the documentation of resources in different format
  kubectl explain deployment --output=plaintext-openapiv2

Options

--api-version string
	Get different explanations for particular API version (API group/version)
-h, --help
	help for explain
-o, --output string Default: "plaintext"
	Format in which to render the schema (plaintext, plaintext-openapiv2)
--recursive
	Print the fields of fields (Currently only 1 level deep)

Parent Options Inherited

--as string
	Username to impersonate for the operation. User could be a regular user or a service account in a namespace.
--as-group strings
	Group to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.
--as-uid string
	UID to impersonate for the operation.
--cache-dir string Default: "$HOME/.kube/cache"
	Default cache directory
--certificate-authority string
	Path to a cert file for the certificate authority
--client-certificate string
	Path to a client certificate file for TLS
--client-key string
	Path to a client key file for TLS
--cluster string
	The name of the kubeconfig cluster to use
--context string
	The name of the kubeconfig context to use
--disable-compression
	If true, opt-out of response compression for all requests to the server
--insecure-skip-tls-verify
	If true, the server's certificate will not be checked for validity. This will make your HTTPS connections insecure
--kubeconfig string
	Path to the kubeconfig file to use for CLI requests.
--kuberc string
	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
	Require server version to match client version
-n, --namespace string
	If present, the namespace scope for this CLI request
--password string
	Password for basic authentication to the API server
--profile string Default: "none"
	Name of profile to capture. One of (none\|cpu\|heap\|goroutine\|threadcreate\|block\|mutex)
--profile-output string Default: "profile.pprof"
	Name of the file to write the profile to
--request-timeout string Default: "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 string
	The address and port of the Kubernetes API server
--storage-driver-buffer-duration duration Default: 1m0s
	Writes in the storage driver will be buffered for this duration, and committed to the non memory backends as a single transaction
--storage-driver-db string Default: "cadvisor"
	database name
--storage-driver-host string Default: "localhost:8086"
	database host:port
--storage-driver-password string Default: "root"
	database password
--storage-driver-secure
	use secure connection with database
--storage-driver-table string Default: "stats"
	table name
--storage-driver-user string Default: "root"
	database username
--tls-server-name string
	Server name to use for server certificate validation. If it is not provided, the hostname used to contact the server is used
--token string
	Bearer token for authentication to the API server
--user string
	The name of the kubeconfig user to use
--username string
	Username for basic authentication to the API server
--version version[=true]
	--version, --version=raw prints version information and quits; --version=vX.Y.Z... sets the reported version
--warnings-as-errors
	Treat warnings received from the server as errors and exit with a non-zero exit code