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Getting started with the OpenShift CLI

About the OpenShift CLI

With the OpenShift command-line interface (CLI), the oc command, you can create applications and manage OKD projects from a terminal. The OpenShift CLI is ideal in the following situations:

  • Working directly with project source code

  • Scripting OKD operations

  • Managing projects while restricted by bandwidth resources and the web console is unavailable

Installing the OpenShift CLI

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) either by downloading the binary or by using an RPM.

Installing the OpenShift CLI by downloading the binary

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) to interact with OKD from a command-line interface. You can install oc on Linux, Windows, or macOS.

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands in OKD 4.12. Download and install the new version of oc.

Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Linux by using the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/oc/latest/ and choose the folder for your operating system and architecture.

  2. Download oc.tar.gz.

  3. Unpack the archive:

    $ tar xvf <file>

  4. Place the oc binary in a directory that is on your PATH.

    To check your PATH, execute the following command:

    $ echo $PATH
Verification

  • After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

    $ oc <command>

Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Windows by using the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/oc/latest/ and choose the folder for your operating system and architecture.

  2. Download oc.zip.

  3. Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.

  4. Move the oc binary to a directory that is on your PATH.

    To check your PATH, open the command prompt and execute the following command:

    C:\> path
Verification

  • After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

    C:\> oc <command>

Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on macOS by using the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/oc/latest/ and choose the folder for your operating system and architecture.

  2. Download oc.tar.gz.

  3. Unpack and unzip the archive.

  4. Move the oc binary to a directory on your PATH.

    To check your PATH, open a terminal and execute the following command:

    $ echo $PATH
Verification

  • After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

    $ oc <command>

Installing the OpenShift CLI by using the web console

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) to interact with OKD from a web console. You can install oc on Linux, Windows, or macOS.

If you installed an earlier version of oc, you cannot use it to complete all of the commands in OKD 4.12. Download and install the new version of oc.

Installing the OpenShift CLI on Linux using the web console

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Linux by using the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. From the web console, click ?.

    click question mark

  2. Click Command Line Tools.

    CLI list

  3. Select appropriate oc binary for your Linux platform, and then click Download oc for Linux.

  4. Save the file.

  5. Unpack the archive.

    $ tar xvf <file>

  6. Move the oc binary to a directory that is on your PATH.

    To check your PATH, execute the following command:

    $ echo $PATH

After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

$ oc <command>

Installing the OpenShift CLI on Windows using the web console

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on Winndows by using the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. From the web console, click ?.

    click question mark

  2. Click Command Line Tools.

    CLI list

  3. Select the oc binary for Windows platform, and then click Download oc for Windows for x86_64.

  4. Save the file.

  5. Unzip the archive with a ZIP program.

  6. Move the oc binary to a directory that is on your PATH.

    To check your PATH, open the command prompt and execute the following command:

    C:\> path

After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

C:\> oc <command>

Installing the OpenShift CLI on macOS using the web console

You can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary on macOS by using the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. From the web console, click ?.

    click question mark

  2. Click Command Line Tools.

    CLI list

  3. Select the oc binary for macOS platform, and then click Download oc for Mac for x86_64.

    For macOS arm64, click Download oc for Mac for ARM 64.

  4. Save the file.

  5. Unpack and unzip the archive.

  6. Move the oc binary to a directory on your PATH.

    To check your PATH, open a terminal and execute the following command:

    $ echo $PATH

After you install the OpenShift CLI, it is available using the oc command:

$ oc <command>

Installing the OpenShift CLI by using Homebrew

For macOS, you can install the OpenShift CLI (oc) by using the Homebrew package manager.

Prerequisites

  • You must have Homebrew (brew) installed.

Procedure

  • Run the following command to install the openshift-cli package:

    $ brew install openshift-cli

Logging in to the OpenShift CLI

You can log in to the OpenShift CLI (oc) to access and manage your cluster.

Prerequisites

  • You must have access to an OKD cluster.

  • You must have installed the OpenShift CLI (oc).

To access a cluster that is accessible only over an HTTP proxy server, you can set the HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY and NO_PROXY variables. These environment variables are respected by the oc CLI so that all communication with the cluster goes through the HTTP proxy.

Authentication headers are sent only when using HTTPS transport.
Procedure

  1. Enter the oc login command and pass in a user name:

    $ oc login -u user1

  2. When prompted, enter the required information:

    Example output
    Server [https://localhost:8443]: https://openshift.example.com:6443 (1)
The server uses a certificate signed by an unknown authority.
You can bypass the certificate check, but any data you send to the server could be intercepted by others.
Use insecure connections? (y/n): y (2)

Authentication required for https://openshift.example.com:6443 (openshift)
Username: user1
Password: (3)
Login successful.

You don't have any projects. You can try to create a new project, by running

    oc new-project <projectname>

Welcome! See 'oc help' to get started.
    1 Enter the OKD server URL.
    2 Enter whether to use insecure connections.
    3 Enter the user’s password.

If you are logged in to the web console, you can generate an oc login command that includes your token and server information. You can use the command to log in to the OKD CLI without the interactive prompts. To generate the command, select Copy login command from the username drop-down menu at the top right of the web console.

You can now create a project or issue other commands for managing your cluster.

Using the OpenShift CLI

Review the following sections to learn how to complete common tasks using the CLI.

Creating a project

Use the oc new-project command to create a new project.

$ oc new-project my-project
Example output
Now using project "my-project" on server "https://openshift.example.com:6443".

Creating a new app

Use the oc new-app command to create a new application.

$ oc new-app https://github.com/sclorg/cakephp-ex
Example output
--> Found image 40de956 (9 days old) in imagestream "openshift/php" under tag "7.2" for "php"

...

    Run 'oc status' to view your app.

Viewing pods

Use the oc get pods command to view the pods for the current project.

When you run oc inside a pod and do not specify a namespace, the namespace of the pod is used by default.

 
$ oc get pods -o wide
Example output
NAME                  READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE     IP            NODE                           NOMINATED NODE
cakephp-ex-1-build    0/1     Completed   0          5m45s   10.131.0.10   ip-10-0-141-74.ec2.internal    <none>
cakephp-ex-1-deploy   0/1     Completed   0          3m44s   10.129.2.9    ip-10-0-147-65.ec2.internal    <none>
cakephp-ex-1-ktz97    1/1     Running     0          3m33s   10.128.2.11   ip-10-0-168-105.ec2.internal   <none>

Viewing pod logs

Use the oc logs command to view logs for a particular pod.

$ oc logs cakephp-ex-1-deploy
Example output
--> Scaling cakephp-ex-1 to 1
--> Success

Viewing the current project

Use the oc project command to view the current project.

$ oc project
Example output
Using project "my-project" on server "https://openshift.example.com:6443".

Viewing the status for the current project

Use the oc status command to view information about the current project, such as services, deployments, and build configs.

$ oc status
Example output
In project my-project on server https://openshift.example.com:6443

svc/cakephp-ex - 172.30.236.80 ports 8080, 8443
  dc/cakephp-ex deploys istag/cakephp-ex:latest <-
    bc/cakephp-ex source builds https://github.com/sclorg/cakephp-ex on openshift/php:7.2
    deployment #1 deployed 2 minutes ago - 1 pod

3 infos identified, use 'oc status --suggest' to see details.

Listing supported API resources

Use the oc api-resources command to view the list of supported API resources on the server.

$ oc api-resources
Example output
NAME                                  SHORTNAMES       APIGROUP                              NAMESPACED   KIND
bindings                                                                                     true         Binding
componentstatuses                     cs                                                     false        ComponentStatus
configmaps                            cm                                                     true         ConfigMap
...

Getting help

You can get help with CLI commands and OKD resources in the following ways.

  • Use oc help to get a list and description of all available CLI commands:

    Example: Get general help for the CLI
    $ oc help
    Example output
    OpenShift Client

This client helps you develop, build, deploy, and run your applications on any OpenShift or Kubernetes compatible
platform. It also includes the administrative commands for managing a cluster under the 'adm' subcommand.

Usage:
  oc [flags]

Basic Commands:
  login           Log in to a server
  new-project     Request a new project
  new-app         Create a new application

...

  • Use the --help flag to get help about a specific CLI command:

    Example: Get help for the oc create command
    $ oc create --help
    Example output
    Create a resource by filename or stdin

JSON and YAML formats are accepted.

Usage:
  oc create -f FILENAME [flags]

...

  • Use the oc explain command to view the description and fields for a particular resource:

    Example: View documentation for the Pod resource
    $ oc explain pods
    Example output
    KIND:     Pod
VERSION:  v1

DESCRIPTION:
     Pod is a collection of containers that can run on a host. This resource is
     created by clients and scheduled onto hosts.

FIELDS:
   apiVersion	<string>
     APIVersion defines the versioned schema of this representation of an
     object. Servers should convert recognized schemas to the latest internal
     value, and may reject unrecognized values. More info:
     https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/devel/api-conventions.md#resources

...

Logging out of the OpenShift CLI

You can log out the OpenShift CLI to end your current session.

  • Use the oc logout command.

    $ oc logout
    Example output
    Logged "user1" out on "https://openshift.example.com"

This deletes the saved authentication token from the server and removes it from your configuration file.