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Kubernetes Cheat Sheet

Quick reference guide for kubectl commands, pod debugging, workloads, services, and cluster operations.

Last updated: 2026-07-25

Core kubectl & Declarative Apply

Command / Pattern	Description
`kubectl apply -f manifest.yaml`	Declaratively create or update cluster resources using 3-way merge patch. Glossary definition
`kubectl get pods -A -o wide`	List all Pods across all namespaces with Node assignment IPs. Glossary definition
`kubectl describe pod pod_name`	Fetch detailed events, status state, and volume mounts of a resource. Glossary definition
`kubectl delete -f manifest.yaml`	Gracefully terminate resources declared in target YAML manifest. Glossary definition

Pod Inspection & Debugging

Command / Pattern	Description
`kubectl logs -f pod_name -c container_name`	Tail container stdout/stderr logs continuously for a target Pod container. Glossary definition
`kubectl exec -it pod_name -- /bin/bash`	Open interactive terminal shell in target Pod container. Glossary definition
`kubectl port-forward pod/pod_name 8080:80`	Forward local port 8080 directly to target Pod port 80. Glossary definition
`kubectl cp pod_name:/path/to/file ./file`	Copy files to or from container filesystem. Glossary definition

Deployments & Scaling

Command / Pattern	Description
`kubectl scale deployment/my-app --replicas=5`	Imperatively adjust desired replica count for target Deployment. Glossary definition
`kubectl rollout status deployment/my-app`	Watch progressive rollout status of active deployment revision. Glossary definition
`kubectl rollout history deployment/my-app`	List previous revision history snapshots stored for rollback. Glossary definition
`kubectl rollout undo deployment/my-app`	Rollback deployment to previous revision state immediately. Glossary definition

Services & Ingress

Command / Pattern	Description
`kubectl get svc,ep`	List internal ClusterIP/NodePort Services alongside active pod Endpoint IPs. Glossary definition
`kubectl expose deployment my-app --port=80 --type=ClusterIP`	Create internal Service exposing deployment Pods on port 80. Glossary definition
`kubectl get ingress`	List configured Ingress HTTP routing rules and external load balancer IPs. Glossary definition

ConfigMaps & Secrets

Command / Pattern	Description
`kubectl create configmap my-config --from-file=config.properties`	Generate ConfigMap resource from a local raw file payload. Glossary definition
`kubectl create secret generic my-secret --from-literal=key=val`	Create base64-encoded secret payload imperatively. Glossary definition