Kubectl aliases and functions that actually save time

kubectl verbosity slows down anything you do more than a few times a day. These are the aliases and functions I actually keep around, not a full cheat sheet.

Base aliases

alias k="kubectl"
alias kg="kubectl get"
alias kd="kubectl describe"
alias kdel="kubectl delete"
alias kn="kubectl -n"

alias kgp="kubectl get pods"
alias kgpw="kubectl get pods -o wide"
alias kgpa="kubectl get pods --all-namespaces"

alias kc="kubectl config"
alias kcc="kubectl config current-context"
alias kcg="kubectl config get-contexts"

JSONPath queries

The verbose -o jsonpath incantations are worth wrapping once and forgetting about:

alias kgpn="kubectl get pods -o jsonpath='{.items[*].metadata.name}'"
alias kgpi="kubectl get pods -o jsonpath='{.items[*].spec.containers[*].image}'"
alias kgps="kubectl get pods -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}{\"\\t\"}{.status.phase}{\"\\n\"}{end}'"

function kpodinfo() {
    kubectl get pods -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}{"\n"}{range .spec.containers[*]}  - {.name}: {.image}{"\n"}{end}{"\n"}{end}'
}

Getting a shell in the right pod

A raw kubectl exec needs the exact pod name, which changes on every deploy. kexec finds it by label pattern instead, and refuses to guess when the pattern matches more than one pod:

function kexec() {
    local ns="${1:-default}"
    local pod_pattern="$2"
    local cmd="${3:-bash}"
    local pod_count=$(kubectl get pods -n "$ns" | grep -c "$pod_pattern")

    if [ $pod_count -eq 0 ]; then
        echo "No pods found matching pattern: $pod_pattern"
        return 1
    elif [ $pod_count -gt 1 ]; then
        echo "Multiple pods found matching pattern: $pod_pattern"
        kubectl get pods -n "$ns" | grep "$pod_pattern"
        echo "Please specify a more precise pattern"
        return 1
    fi

    local pod=$(kubectl get pods -n "$ns" | grep "$pod_pattern" | awk '{print $1}')
    echo "Executing $cmd on pod: $pod"
    kubectl exec -it -n "$ns" "$pod" -- $cmd
}

For multi-container pods, add a container argument and list the options when it’s missing:

function kexec_container() {
    local ns="${1:-default}"
    local pod="$2"
    local container="$3"
    local cmd="${4:-bash}"

    if [ -z "$container" ]; then
        echo "Available containers:"
        kubectl get pod "$pod" -n "$ns" -o jsonpath='{.spec.containers[*].name}'
        echo
        return 1
    fi

    kubectl exec -it -n "$ns" "$pod" -c "$container" -- $cmd
}

Watching and searching logs

function kwatch_pods() {
    local ns="${1:-default}"
    kubectl get pods -n "$ns" -w -o custom-columns=\
NAME:.metadata.name,\
STATUS:.status.phase,\
READY:.status.containerStatuses[0].ready,\
RESTARTS:.status.containerStatuses[0].restartCount,\
AGE:.metadata.creationTimestamp
}

function klogs_all() {
    local ns="${1:-default}"
    local label="$2"
    local pods=$(kubectl get pods -n "$ns" -l "$label" -o name)
    for pod in $pods; do
        kubectl logs -f "$pod" -n "$ns" &
    done
    wait
}

function klogs_search() {
    local ns="${1:-default}"
    local pattern="$2"
    local since="${3:-1h}"
    kubectl get pods -n "$ns" -o name | while read -r pod; do
        echo "=== $pod ==="
        kubectl logs --since=$since "$pod" -n "$ns" | grep -i "$pattern"
    done
}

Context switching and cleanup

function kctx() {
    if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
        kubectl config get-contexts
    else
        kubectl config use-context "$1"
        [ -n "$2" ] && kubectl config set-context --current --namespace="$2"
    fi
}

function kcleanup() {
    local ns="${1:-default}"
    kubectl delete pods --field-selector=status.phase=Succeeded -n "$ns"
    kubectl delete pods --field-selector=status.phase=Failed -n "$ns"
}

Bash and Zsh disagree on array syntax, so a function that picks a pod interactively needs a slightly different body in each. If you want it to work in both, skip arrays and read pod names line by line instead:

function compatible_kexec() {
    kubectl get pods -n "$1" -o name | while read -r pod; do
        pod=${pod##*/}
        kubectl exec -it -n "$1" "$pod" -- bash
        break
    done
}

None of this replaces knowing kubectl itself. It just removes the typing tax for the ten commands you run fifty times a day.