What's the best way to list out the environment variables in a kubernetes pod?
(Similar to this, but for Kube, not Docker.)
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25`kubectl -n
exec – Egor Stambakio Dec 05 '19 at 15:20-- env` ? -
6I suggest only by parsing of `kubectl describe pod
`. – Alexey Usharovski Dec 05 '19 at 15:21 -
@EgorStambakio yeah also just found this. thanks! – Robert Yi Dec 05 '19 at 15:22
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Trying to tag @AlexeyUsharovski : thank you! If you would like to post it as an answer yourself, please let me know and I will delete mine. – pyb May 11 '22 at 20:31
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Other ways see: [This other post](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/53121439/how-to-parse-json-format-output-of-kubectl-get-pods-using-jq-and-create-an-arr) – Ben Francom Apr 03 '23 at 16:03
6 Answers
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kubectl exec -it <pod_name> -- env
Robert Yi
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8Note: No need for the `-it` flags. The best answer is actually Egor Stambakio's in the OP comments (it also covers when in a namespace). – Eric Platon Dec 11 '20 at 00:55
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Both answers have the following issues:
- They assume you have the permissions to start pod, which is not the case in a locked-down environment
- They start a new pod, which is invasive and may give different environment variables than "a[n already running] kubernetes pod"
To inspect a running pod and get its environment variables, one can run:
kubectl describe pod <podname>
This is from Alexey Usharovski's comment.
I am hoping this gives more visibility to your great answer. If you would like to post it as an answer yourself, please let me know and I will delete mine.
pyb
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Execute in bash:
kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -- printenv | grep -i env
You will get all environment variables that consists env keyword.
Sabuhi Shukurov
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Do you know why this command only returns the firs occurrence but not all the matched strings? – elulcao Nov 04 '22 at 22:19
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kubectl set env can be used for both setting environment variables and reading them .
You can use kubectl set env [resource] --list option to get them.
For example to list all environment variables for all PODs in the DEFAULT namespace:
kubectl set env pods --all --list
or for an specific POD in a given namespace
kubectl set env pod/<pod-NAME> --list -n <NAMESPACE-NAME>
or for a deployment in DEFAULT namespace
kubectl set env deployment/<deployment-NAME> --list
this is better than running command inside the POD as in some cases the OS command may not exist in very slim containers
For more see : https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubectl/kubectl-commands#set
pref
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1if the env pass from configmap you won't see the env value. But then you have to check the configmap. – Sany Liew May 27 '23 at 18:04
