Kubernetes Helper Scripts

klog, kenv, and kdesc are simple, interactive bash scripts designed to streamline common kubectl tasks.

They provide a user-friendly, numbered menu to select namespaces and resources, eliminating the need to type or copy and paste long names.

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Features

• Interactive Selection: Easily select namespaces and pods from a numbered list.
• Interactive Loop: After viewing logs, you can instantly search again, switch pods, or even change namespaces without restarting the script.
• Colorful Interface: Color-coded prompts and lists for better readability.
• Keyword Filtering: Instantly filter logs or environment variables using one or more keywords.
• Log Following: klog includes an option to stream logs in real-time (kubectl logs -f).
• Flexible Log Tailing: Specify the number of log lines to retrieve (e.g., the last 100 lines).
• Zero Dependencies: Written in pure bash with no external dependencies required.
• Argument Support: Pass in a namespace as an argument to skip the namespace selection menu (e.g., ./klog my-namespace).

Prerequisites

• kubectl must be installed and configured to point to a running Kubernetes cluster.

Installation

An installation script is provided to automatically make the scripts executable and copy them to a suitable directory in your system's PATH.

1. Clone the repository or download the scripts.

2. Navigate into the project directory:

   cd kube-helper-scripts

3. Run the installation script:

   chmod +x install.sh
   ./install.sh

The script will attempt to install the scripts to a user-local directory (like ~/.local/bin) if it is in your $PATH. Otherwise, it will fall back to /usr/local/bin, which may prompt for a sudo password.

After installation, you may need to restart your terminal or source your shell profile (e.g., source ~/.bashrc) for the new commands to be available.

Usage

Once installed, you can run the scripts directly from your terminal.

klog

Run the script with klog or klog <namespace>.

The script will guide you through selecting a namespace and pod. You can then enter keywords to filter the logs, choose to follow them live, and specify how many lines to retrieve.

After the logs are displayed, a menu will appear, allowing you to start a new search, switch pods, or change namespaces.

$ klog
Please select a namespace:
1) default
2) dev
3) staging
Enter number for namespace: 2

Please select a pod from the namespace 'dev':
1) logger-dev-1-7787d59d78-j4m65
2) logger-dev-2-849d7ff58c-ghtgl
Enter number for pod: 1

Enter keywords to search (use ';' to separate): ERROR;timeout
Follow logs? (y/N): n
Enter number of log lines to fetch (default: 10, use -1 for all): 50

Searching logs for pod 'logger-dev-1-7787d59d78-j4m65' in namespace 'dev'...
[ERROR] 2025-09-21T20:00:00.000Z - A timeout occurred.
...

What do you want to do next?
1) Search again in the same pod ('logger-dev-1-7787d59d78-j4m65')
2) Select another pod in the same namespace ('dev')
3) Select another namespace
q) Quit
Enter your choice: q
Exiting.

kenv

Run the script with kenv or kenv <namespace>.

$ kenv dev

Please select a pod from the namespace 'dev':
1) logger-dev-1-7787d59d78-j4m65
2) logger-dev-2-849d7ff58c-ghtgl
Enter number for pod: 1

Enter keywords to filter environment variables (use ';' to separate): API

Searching environment variables for pod 'logger-dev-1-7787d59d78-j4m65' in namespace 'dev'...
API_KEY=s3cr3t-v4lu3
API_URL=https://api.example.com

kdesc

Interactively describe any Kubernetes resource.

$ kdesc
Please select a resource type:
1) pod
2) service
3) deployment
...
Enter number for resource type: 3

Please select a namespace:
1) default
2) dev
...
Enter number for namespace: 2

Please select a resource from dev to describe:
1) my-app-deployment
...
Enter number for resource: 1

Describing deployment/my-app-deployment in namespace dev...
Name:                   my-app-deployment
Namespace:              dev
CreationTimestamp:      ...
...

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Pro-Tip: Upgrade with fzf

For an even better experience, you can use fzf (a command-line fuzzy finder) to create a powerful, interactive search menu instead of the numbered list.

1. Install fzf:

# On macOS
brew install fzf

# On other systems, see fzf repository for instructions.

2. Modify the scripts: Replace the for loop and read command for namespace/pod selection with a single fzf line.

Example for namespace selection:

- for i in "${!ns_list[@]}"; do ... done
- read -p "..." selected_ns_index
- namespace="${ns_list[selected_ns_index-1]}"
+ namespace=$(printf "%s\n" "${ns_list[@]}" | fzf)

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details.