Plugin Mechanism
TL;DR
- Drop executables named
kubectl-plugin_nameon yourPATHand invoke withkubectl plugin-name kubectl plugin listshows available plugins
Kubectl plugins
Kubectl plugins are a lightweight mechanism to extend kubectl with custom functionality to suit your needs.
Plugin mechanism
As of version 1.12, kubectl has a simple plugin mechanism to expose binaries on your PATH as kubectl subcommands.
When invoking an unknown subcommand kubectl my-plugin, kubectl starts searching for an executable named kubectl-my_plugin on your PATH.
Note how the dash is mapped to an underscore. This is to enable plugins that are invoked by multiple words, for example
kubectl my plugin would trigger a search for the commands kubectl-my-plugin or kubectl-my. The more specific match
always wins over the other, so if both kubectl-my and kubectl-my-plugin exist, the latter will be called.
When a matching executable is found, kubectl calls it, forwarding all extra arguments.
The reference on kubernetes.io knows more.
Windows compatibility
On windows, the minimum required version to use the plugin mechanism is 1.14.Listing installed plugins
kubectl plugin list
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