kubectl rsh 🐚

A kubectl plugin for opening a remote shell session to a container running in a Kubernetes cluster:

kubectl rsh mypod
$

Can also be used for executing a one-time command in a container:

kubectl rsh mypod ls /
app  boot  etc   lib    lib64   media  opt   root  sbin  sys  usr
bin  dev   home  lib32  libx32  mnt    proc  run   srv   tmp  var

This is a port of the oc rsh command from OpenShift Client to a standalone binary, so all credits go to oc maintainers. Licensing and modification information is available in the NOTICE file.

Installation

Just download the binary for your OS and architecture from the Releases page and place it in your PATH.

Usage

Usage:
  kubectl rsh [-c CONTAINER] [flags] (POD | TYPE/NAME) COMMAND [args...]

Flags:
      --as string                      Username to impersonate for the operation. User could be a regular user or a service account in a namespace.
      --as-group stringArray           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 cache directory (default "$HOME/.kube/cache")
      --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
  -c, --container string               Container name; defaults to first container
      --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
  -f, --filename strings               to use to rsh into the resource
  -h, --help                           help for kubectl
      --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.
      --match-server-version           Require server version to match client version
  -n, --namespace string               If present, the namespace scope for this CLI request
  -T, --no-tty                         Disable pseudo-terminal allocation
      --pod-running-timeout duration   The length of time (like 5s, 2m, or 3h, higher than zero) to wait until at least one pod is running (default 1m0s)
      --request-timeout string         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. (default "0")
  -s, --server string                  The address and port of the Kubernetes API server
      --shell string                   Path to the shell command (default "/bin/sh")
      --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
  -t, --tty                            Force a pseudo-terminal to be allocated
      --user string                    The name of the kubeconfig user to use
  -v, --version                        Print version information

This command will attempt to start a shell session in a pod for the specified resource. It works with pods, deployments, jobs, daemon sets, replication controllers and replica sets. Any of the aforementioned resources (apart from pods) will be resolved to a ready pod.

It will default to the first container if none is specified, and will attempt to use /bin/sh as the default shell. You may pass any flags supported by this command before the resource name, and an optional command after the resource name, which will be executed instead of a login shell.

A TTY will be automatically allocated if standard input is interactive - use -t and -T to override. A TERM variable is sent to the environment where the shell (or command) will be executed. By default its value is the same as the TERM variable from the local environment; if not set, xterm is used.

Examples

# Open a shell session on the first container in pod 'foo'
kubectl rsh foo

# Open a shell session on the first container in pod 'foo' and namespace 'bar'
# (Note that kubectl client specific arguments must come before the resource name and its arguments)
kubectl rsh -n bar foo

# Run the command 'cat /etc/resolv.conf' inside pod 'foo'
kubectl rsh foo cat /etc/resolv.conf

# See the configuration of your internal registry
kubectl rsh deployment/docker-registry cat config.yml

# Open a shell session on the container named 'index' inside a pod of your job
kubectl rsh -c index job/scheduled