<!-- SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2023 Kalle Fagerberg SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0 -->

kubectl-klock

A kubectl plugin to render the kubectl get pods --watch output in a
much more readable fashion.

Think of it as running watch kubectl get pods, but instead of polling,
it uses the regular watch feature to stream updates as soon as they occur.

Installation

Krew

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kubectl krew install klock

Snap

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sudo snap install klock

Scoop

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scoop bucket add applejag https://github.com/applejag/applejag-bucket
scoop install applejag/kubectl-klock

Nix

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nix-shell -p kubectl-klock

Pre-built binaries

You can download pre-built binaries from the latest GitHub release: https://github.com/applejag/kubectl-klock/releases/latest

Download the one that fits your OS and architecture, extract the
tarball/zip file, and move the kubectl-klock binary to somewhere in your PATH.
For example:

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tar -xzf kubectl-klock_linux_amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv ./kubectl-klock /usr/local/bin

From source

Requires Go 1.21 (or later).

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go install github.com/applejag/kubectl-klock@latest

Usage

Supports a wide range of flags

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kubectl klock <resource> [name(s)] [flags]

Examples

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# Watch all pods
kubectl klock pods

# Watch all pods with more information (such as node name)
kubectl klock pods -o wide

# Watch a specific pod
kubectl klock pods my-pod-7d68885db5-6dfst

# Watch a subset of pods, filtering on labels
kubectl klock pods --selector app=my-app
kubectl klock pods -l app=my-app

# Watch all pods in all namespaces
kubectl klock pods --all-namespaces
kubectl klock pods -A

# Watch other resource types
kubectl klock cronjobs
kubectl klock deployments
kubectl klock statefulsets
kubectl klock nodes

# Watch all pods, but restart the watch when your ~/.kube/config file changes,
# such as when using "kubectl config use-context NAME"
kubectl klock pods --watch-kubeconfig
kubectl klock pods -W

There's also some hotkeys available:

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  →/l/pgdn next page      /        filter by text                  ctrl+c quit
  ←/h/pgup prev page      enter    close the filter input field    ?/esc  close help
  g/home   go to start    esc      clear the applied filter        d      show all deleted
  G/end    go to end      ↓/ctrl+n show next suggestion            f      toggle fullscreen
                          ↑/ctrl+p show previous suggestion
                          tab      accept a suggestion

Features

• Pagination, for when the terminal window gets too small (height-wise)

• Same output format as kubectl get

• Watch arbitrary resources, just like kubectl get <resource> [name]

• Filter results

• Auto updating age column.

• Colors on statuses (e.g Running) and fractions (e.g 1/1) to make
  them stand out more.

• Restart watch when kubeconfig file changes (flag: --watch-kubeconfig, -W),
  such as when changed by kubectx.

• Color themes powered by kubecolor

• Shows deleted table rows for a short duration,
  controllable via the --hide-deleted=10s flag
  and KLOCK_HIDE_DELETED=10s environment variable.
  Can be disabled to always show deleted rows by setting --hide-deleted=false

Environment variables

Command-line flags can be controlled via environment variables:

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export KLOCK_ALL_NAMESPACES="true"                     # --all-namespaces
export KLOCK_FIELD_SELECTOR="status.phase!=Succeeded"  # --field-separator
export KLOCK_HIDE_DELETED="false"                      # --hide-deleted
export KLOCK_LABEL_COLUMNS="app.kubernetes.io/name"    # --label-columns
export KLOCK_OUTPUT="wide"                             # --output
export KLOCK_SELECTOR="team!=frontend"                 # --selector
export KLOCK_WATCH_KUBECONFIG="true"                   # --watch-kubeconfig

The command-line flags have precedence over the environment variables.
So if you set KLOCK_ALL_NAMESPACES=true then you can revert the value
by passing the flag --all-namespaces=false

Color themes

Klock uses kubecolor's coloring logic and behavior when coloring its output.
See: https://kubecolor.github.io/customizing/themes/

[!NOTE]
If you have a light background, then switch kubectl-klock to use the light
theme by setting the KUBECOLOR_PRESET=light
environment variable:

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export KUBECOLOR_PRESET="light"
kubectl klock --help

Color settings that klock uses:

• KUBECOLOR_THEME_BASE_DANGER for rows with errors
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_BASE_MUTED for "No resources found"
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_BASE_MUTED for deleted rows
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_BASE_MUTED for status line
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_BASE_SECONDARY for "FILTER:" prompt
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_BASE_WARNING for "No resources visible" when filtering
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_DATA_DURATIONFRESH for AGE: 12h when below threshold
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_DATA_RATIO_EQUAL for READY: 1/1
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_DATA_RATIO_UNEQUAL for READY: 0/1
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_STATUS_ERROR for STATUS: CrashLoopBackOff
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_STATUS_SUCCESS for STATUS: Running
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_STATUS_WARNING for STATUS: Terminating
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_TABLE_COLUMNS for table columns
• KUBECOLOR_THEME_TABLE_HEADER for table header

You can configure these colors either via
environment variables
or via the ~/.kube/color.yaml config file

Completion

To get completion when writing kubectl klock, you need to add
./bin/kubectl_complete-klock
to your PATH.

For example:

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sudo curl https://github.com/applejag/kubectl-klock/raw/main/bin/kubectl_complete-klock -o /usr/local/bin/kubectl_complete-klock
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/kubectl_complete-klock