How to install Kubectl on Mac

This blog shows you how to install Kubectl, a command line interface for running commands against Kubernetes clusters. kubectl looks for a file named config in the $HOME/.kube directory.

Installing kubectl on Mac

There are 3 different ways to install kubectl on Mac. You can choose anyone!

Install kubectl binary with curl on macOS

Following are the steps to install kubectl binary with curl on macOS:

Step #1 Download the latest release:

curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/$(curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl

Step #2 To download a specific version, replace the $(curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt) with the specific version.

For example, to download version v1.15.0 on macOS, type:

curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/v1.15.0/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl

Step #3 Make the kubectl binary executable.

chmod +x ./kubectl

Step #4 Move the binary in to your PATH.

sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

Step #5 Test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date:

kubectl version

Install with Homebrew on macOS

If you are using Homebrew package manager, you can install kubectl with following Homebrew command.

Step #1 Run the installation command:

brew install kubernetes-cli

Step #2 Test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date:

kubectl version

Install with Macports on macOS

If you are using Macports package manager, you can install kubectl with following Macports command.

Step #1 Run the installation command:

sudo port selfupdate
sudo port install kubectl

Step #2 Test to ensure the version you installed is up-to-date:

kubectl version

Set kubectl alias

To avoid typing kubectl everytime, you can set below alias in ~/.bash_profile file.

alias k='kubectl'

After editing ~/.bash_profile file, you must load the profile using below command.

source ~/.bash_profile

Happy coding…