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Curriculum 5: Kubectl CLI Cheat Sheet

Output Formats (JSON, YAML, Wide)

12 min · 15 XP

Output Formats

kubectl can display data in several formats. Choosing the right one depends on whether you are browsing, debugging, scripting, or extracting specific values.

Default Table Output

With no flags, kubectl shows a simple table:

kubectl get pods

NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
my-app-7d4b8c6f5-abc12  1/1     Running   0          2h
my-app-7d4b8c6f5-def34  1/1     Running   0          2h

Wide Output

The -o wide flag adds extra columns like node name and IP address:

kubectl get pods -o wide

This is useful when you need to know which node a Pod is running on or what its IP is without running describe.

YAML Output

The -o yaml flag shows the complete resource definition:

kubectl get deployment my-app -o yaml

This is helpful for understanding exactly what Kubernetes knows about a resource, including all default values that were set automatically.

JSON Output

The -o json flag outputs JSON, which works well with tools like jq:

kubectl get pod my-app -o json | jq '.status.phase'

Name Output

The -o name flag returns just the resource type and name, perfect for scripting:

kubectl get pods -o name

pod/my-app-7d4b8c6f5-abc12
pod/my-app-7d4b8c6f5-def34

JSONPath

The -o jsonpath flag lets you extract specific fields using JSONPath expressions:

# Get just the pod IP
kubectl get pod my-app -o jsonpath='{.status.podIP}'

# Get all pod names
kubectl get pods -o jsonpath='{.items[*].metadata.name}'

# Get names and statuses with formatting
kubectl get pods -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}{"\t"}{.status.phase}{"\n"}{end}'

Custom Columns

Build your own table with exactly the columns you want:

kubectl get pods -o custom-columns=NAME:.metadata.name,STATUS:.status.phase,NODE:.spec.nodeName

Key Takeaways

  • Use -o wide for a quick view with extra details
  • Use -o yaml or -o json to see the full resource definition
  • Use -o name in scripts to get just the resource identifiers
  • Use -o jsonpath to extract specific fields for automation
  • Custom columns let you build your own tailored output tables