Installing kubectl

Let's take a look at how you can install kubectl on macOS, on Windows, and in CI/CD pipelines.

Installing on macOS

The easiest way to install kubectl on macOS is using the Homebrew package manager (https://brew.sh/):

1. To install, run this:

   $ brew install kubectl

2. To see the version you have installed, use this:

   $ kubectl version –client --short
   Client Version: v1.18.1

Installing on Windows

To install kubectl on Windows, you could use the simple command-line installer Scoop (https://scoop.sh/):

1. To install, run this:

   $ scoop install kubectl

2. To see the version you have installed, use this:

   $ kubectl version –client --short
   Client Version: v1.18.1

3. Create the .kube directory in your home directory:

   $ mkdir %USERPROFILE%\.kube

4. Navigate to the .kube directory:

   $ cd %USERPROFILE%\.kube

5. Configure kubectl to use a remote Kubernetes cluster:

   $ New-Item config -type file

Installing on Linux

When you want to use kubectl on Linux, you have two options:

• Use curl:

  $ curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/`curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt`/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl

• If your Linux system supports Docker images, use https://hub.docker.com/r/bitnami/kubectl/.

  Note

  Linux is a very common environment for CI/CD pipelines.