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kubectl diff

Synopsis

Diff configurations specified by file name or stdin between the current online configuration, and the configuration as it would be if applied.

The output is always YAML.

KUBECTL_EXTERNAL_DIFF environment variable can be used to select your own diff command. Users can use external commands with params too, example: KUBECTL_EXTERNAL_DIFF="colordiff -N -u"

By default, the "diff" command available in your path will be run with the "-u" (unified diff) and "-N" (treat absent files as empty) options.

Exit status: 0 No differences were found. 1 Differences were found. >1 Kubectl or diff failed with an error.

Note: KUBECTL_EXTERNAL_DIFF, if used, is expected to follow that convention.

kubectl diff -f FILENAME

Examples

  # Diff resources included in pod.json
  kubectl diff -f pod.json
  
  # Diff file read from stdin
  cat service.yaml | kubectl diff -f -

Options

--concurrency int     Default: 1

Number of objects to process in parallel when diffing against the live version. Larger number = faster, but more memory, I/O and CPU over that shorter period of time.
--field-manager string     Default: "kubectl-client-side-apply"

Name of the manager used to track field ownership.
-f, --filename strings

Filename, directory, or URL to files contains the configuration to diff
--force-conflicts

If true, server-side apply will force the changes against conflicts.
-h, --help

help for diff
-k, --kustomize string

Process the kustomization directory. This flag can't be used together with -f or -R.
--prune

Include resources that would be deleted by pruning. Can be used with -l and default shows all resources would be pruned
--prune-allowlist strings

Overwrite the default allowlist with <group/version/kind> for --prune
-R, --recursive

Process the directory used in -f, --filename recursively. Useful when you want to manage related manifests organized within the same directory.
-l, --selector string

Selector (label query) to filter on, supports '=', '==', and '!='.(e.g. -l key1=value1,key2=value2). Matching objects must satisfy all of the specified label constraints.
--server-side

If true, apply runs in the server instead of the client.
--show-managed-fields

If true, include managed fields in the diff.

--as string

Username to impersonate for the operation. User could be a regular user or a service account in a namespace.
--as-group strings

Group to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.
--as-uid string

UID to impersonate for the operation.
--cache-dir string     Default: "$HOME/.kube/cache"

Default cache directory
--certificate-authority string

Path to a cert file for the certificate authority
--client-certificate string

Path to a client certificate file for TLS
--client-key string

Path to a client key file for TLS
--cluster string

The name of the kubeconfig cluster to use
--context string

The name of the kubeconfig context to use
--default-not-ready-toleration-seconds int     Default: 300

Indicates the tolerationSeconds of the toleration for notReady:NoExecute that is added by default to every pod that does not already have such a toleration.
--default-unreachable-toleration-seconds int     Default: 300

Indicates the tolerationSeconds of the toleration for unreachable:NoExecute that is added by default to every pod that does not already have such a toleration.
--disable-compression

If true, opt-out of response compression for all requests to the server
--insecure-skip-tls-verify

If true, the server's certificate will not be checked for validity. This will make your HTTPS connections insecure
--kubeconfig string

Path to the kubeconfig file to use for CLI requests.
--match-server-version

Require server version to match client version
-n, --namespace string

If present, the namespace scope for this CLI request
--password string

Password for basic authentication to the API server
--profile string     Default: "none"

Name of profile to capture. One of (none|cpu|heap|goroutine|threadcreate|block|mutex)
--profile-output string     Default: "profile.pprof"

Name of the file to write the profile to
--request-timeout string     Default: "0"

The length of time to wait before giving up on a single server request. Non-zero values should contain a corresponding time unit (e.g. 1s, 2m, 3h). A value of zero means don't timeout requests.
-s, --server string

The address and port of the Kubernetes API server
--storage-driver-buffer-duration duration     Default: 1m0s

Writes in the storage driver will be buffered for this duration, and committed to the non memory backends as a single transaction
--storage-driver-db string     Default: "cadvisor"

database name
--storage-driver-host string     Default: "localhost:8086"

database host:port
--storage-driver-password string     Default: "root"

database password
--storage-driver-secure

use secure connection with database
--storage-driver-table string     Default: "stats"

table name
--storage-driver-user string     Default: "root"

database username
--tls-server-name string

Server name to use for server certificate validation. If it is not provided, the hostname used to contact the server is used
--token string

Bearer token for authentication to the API server
--user string

The name of the kubeconfig user to use
--username string

Username for basic authentication to the API server
--version version[=true]

--version, --version=raw prints version information and quits; --version=vX.Y.Z... sets the reported version
--warnings-as-errors

Treat warnings received from the server as errors and exit with a non-zero exit code

See Also

  • kubectl - kubectl controls the Kubernetes cluster manager