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Kubernetes: 20 kubectl Commands for Daily Work

11. 06. 2025 1 min read intermediate

Kubectl is your best friend when working with Kubernetes. Here are 20 commands for daily work.

Context and Namespace

kubectl config get-contexts kubectl config use-context production kubectl config set-context –current –namespace=app

Resource Overview

kubectl get pods -A kubectl get pods -o wide kubectl get pods –sort-by=.status.startTime

Logs

kubectl logs -f my-pod kubectl logs –previous my-pod kubectl logs -l app=frontend –all-containers

Exec and Port Forward

kubectl exec -it my-pod – /bin/sh kubectl port-forward svc/my-app 8080:80

Resource Usage

kubectl top pods –sort-by=memory kubectl top nodes

Scale and Rollout

kubectl scale deployment my-app –replicas=5 kubectl rollout undo deployment/my-app kubectl rollout status deployment/my-app

Apply and Delete

kubectl apply -f manifest.yaml kubectl delete pod my-pod –grace-period=0 –force

JSONPath and Dry Run

kubectl get pods -o jsonpath=’{.items[*].metadata.name}’ kubectl create deployment nginx –image=nginx –dry-run=client -o yaml

Labels and Selectors

kubectl label pods my-pod env=production kubectl get pods -l env=production

Debug and Events

kubectl debug my-pod -it –image=busybox kubectl get events –sort-by=.lastTimestamp kubectl describe pod my-pod

ConfigMap and Secret

kubectl create configmap my-config –from-file=config.yaml kubectl create secret generic db-pass –from-literal=password=s3cret kubectl get secret db-pass -o jsonpath=’{.data.password}’ | base64 -d

Aliases

alias k=kubectl alias kgp=”kubectl get pods” alias kl=”kubectl logs -f”

Tip

Install kubectx, kubens and set up zsh completion — game changer.

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CORE SYSTEMS team

We build core systems and AI agents that keep operations running. 15 years of experience with enterprise IT.