Can I use autocompletion for kubectl in zsh?

Question

I daily find myself doing...

$ kubectl --context=foo get pods
  < copy text manually >
$ kubectl --context=foo logs dep1-12345678-10101

I would like to cycle through matching resources with

$ kubectl --context=foo logs dep1<TAB>

but this doesn't seem to do anything with my stock setup. Any ideas?

osx 10.12.3 kubectl v1.4.5 zsh zsh 5.2 (x86_64-apple-darwin16.0)

score 80 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 18 '19 at 11:57

80

Both bash and zsh supports scripts that completes printed command when you press <TAB>. The feature is called Programmable completion, and you can find more details about that here: zsh completion.

Fortunately, you don't need to write your own script - kubectl provides it for zsh > 5.2. Try running this command: source <(kubectl completion zsh).

Another option is to use this tool: https://github.com/mkokho/kubemrr (disclaimer: I'm the author). The reason it exists is because standard completion script is too slow - it might take seconds before Kubernetes cluster replies will all pod names. But kubemrr keeps the names locally, so the response comes back almost immediately.

edited Nov 18 '19 at 11:57

jfunez

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answered Feb 21 '17 at 09:39

mkokho

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17

To automatically load in future shells, you can do `echo "source <(kubectl completion zsh)" >> ~/.zshrc` – Nikhita Raghunath Mar 26 '17 at 11:51
This is amazing. Spent 30 minutes trying to get bash completion working in Centos until I found this. – james-see Mar 04 '20 at 17:23
2

If you're running this on OSX and getting `command not found: compdef`, check this answer: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/477909/12737 – Lukas Knuth May 05 '20 at 11:20

Max Peng · Answer 2 · 2022-01-24T06:05:56.327

15

For oh-my-zsh, the easiest way to enable kubectl auto-completion is to add kubectl plugin in ~/.zshrc:

# somewhere in your .zshrc
# kubectl: 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.
# kube-ps1: A script that lets you add the current Kubernetes context and namespace configured on kubectl to your Bash/Zsh prompt strings
plugins=(git kubectl Kube-ps1)

edited Jan 24 '22 at 06:05

answered Sep 16 '20 at 06:25

Max Peng

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I had to add kube-ps1 to the list to get it to work `plugins=(git kubectl kube-ps1)` + another line `source <(kubectl completion zsh)` – mgershen Jul 22 '21 at 10:11
I didn't need `kube-ps1`, but I did need `plugins=(git kubectl)` and `source <(kubectl completion zsh)`. – technogeek1995 Jan 19 '22 at 15:17

wweir · Answer 3 · 2019-11-20T02:11:46.383

14

I add this function to my $HOME/.zshrc.

It will lazy load complete function of kubectl

kubectl () {
    command kubectl $*
    if [[ -z $KUBECTL_COMPLETE ]]
    then
        source <(command kubectl completion zsh)
        KUBECTL_COMPLETE=1 
    fi
}

The oneline version:

(( ${+commands[kubectl]} )) && alias kubectl='test -z $C_KUBE && C_KUBE=1 && source <(command kubectl completion zsh); command kubectl'

edited Nov 20 '19 at 02:11

answered Jan 11 '18 at 08:47

wweir

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`(( ${+commands[kubectl]} )) && alias kubectl='test -z $C_KUBE && C_KUBE=1 && source <(command kubectl completion zsh); command kubectl'` – wweir Oct 08 '18 at 03:08
2

can you please explain what does the command do which you left in the previous comment? – MutantMahesh Apr 01 '19 at 19:11
1

@MutantMahesh 1. if the executable binary file kubectl exist, make the alias; 2. check if the environment variable C_KUBE exist. if not exist, source completion script and set the environment variable; 3. let the aliased command 'kubectl' works like the real command 'kubectl' – wweir Sep 05 '19 at 03:39

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 28 '21 at 16:36

6

Try to add one line at the begining of you .zshrc file

autoload -U +X compinit && compinit

then add another line below

source <(kubectl completion zsh)

answered Oct 28 '21 at 16:36

malajisi

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18

this is what helped me – 0xh8h Jun 18 '22 at 10:58

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 14 '22 at 07:27

I want to suggest more clean setup, for all of you that are using Oh My Zsh. The current accepted answer uses the command kubectl completion zsh and sources them to the environment. Instead of doing that we would place them in the plugins folder, using the same command but modifying it to:

kubectl completion zsh > ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/kubectl.plugin.zsh

Now we have to define the plugins we want to load on ZSH start inside of our ~/.zshrc config

...

plugins=(
  git
  ...
  kubectl
)

...

This solution has the benefit of keeping your config clean. (Yes I know it is one line, but if you have to do this for 10 plugins it adds up! :) )

Can I use autocompletion for kubectl in zsh?

5 Answers5