bookshelfdave / kex

Quick k8s pod exec utility

The purpose of kex is to provide an opinionated executor into a kubernetes container. Traditionally, if one wanted to exec into a kubernetes container, one had to kubectl get pods --namespace foo, visually identify the pod of interest, copy that pod to the buffer, and then kubectl --namespace foo exec -it <paste_buffer> bash to exec into the pod. This simple utility aims to provide a namespace-specific pod selector for quick execution.

kex

kex(1)

NAME kex - Quick k8s pod exec utility.

REQUIRES kubectl(1)

SYNOPSIS kex [-n |1] [-c |bash] [OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION kex is a quick kubernetes (k8s) utility to exec into a pod.

OPTIONS

-l, --list
    List available pods

-n, --number
    Specify the pod number in the list to exec into. Default to "1"

-c, --command
    Specify an alternative exec command. Defaults to "bash"

-h, --help
    Show this help message

SEE ALSO kubectx(1), kubens(1)

USAGE

$ kex -l
1           365bass-dt1nb
2           esp-echo-546159305-mh4gq
3           livewell-frontend-3514659123-hq60x
4           livewell-frontend-3514659123-jqdrq
5           livewell-frontend-3514659123-wm77l
6           livewell-redis-3260658712-rstr5
7           livewell-worker-715121025-7k6s9
8           livewell-worker-715121025-z90zs
9           minecraft-1545301362-rf1s5

$ kex
root@365bass-dt1nb:/#

$ kex -n 5
root@livewell-frontend-3514659123-wm77l:/app#

$ kex -n 9 -c uname
Linux

Installation

For macOS:

Use the Homebrew package manager:

brew tap farmotive/k8s
brew install kex

NOTE: If using gcloud sdk to manage the installation and versioning of kubectl, install with the --without-kubernetes-cli flag to omit the brew dependency:

brew install kex --without-kubernetes-cli

See farmotive homebrew k8s install section for more options.

Other platforms:

• Download the kex script
• Add it somewhere in your PATH
• Make it executable (chmod +x)

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Disclaimer: This is not an official Google product.

Thanks to ahmetb for the inspiration!