name: describe
synopsis: Show details of a specific resource or group of resources
description: |-
  Show details of a specific resource or group of resources.

  This command joins many API calls together to form a detailed description of a
  given resource or group of resources.

  $ kubectl describe TYPE NAME_PREFIX

  will first check for an exact match on TYPE and NAME_PREFIX. If no such resource
  exists, it will output details for every resource that has a name prefixed with NAME_PREFIX

  Possible resource types include (case insensitive): pods (po), services (svc), deployments,
  replicasets (rs), replicationcontrollers (rc), nodes (no), events (ev), limitranges (limits),
  persistentvolumes (pv), persistentvolumeclaims (pvc), resourcequotas (quota), namespaces (ns),
  serviceaccounts, ingresses (ing), horizontalpodautoscalers (hpa), daemonsets (ds), configmaps,
  componentstatuses (cs), endpoints (ep), and secrets.
options:
- name: filename
  shorthand: f
  default_value: '[]'
  usage: |
    Filename, directory, or URL to a file containing the resource to describe
- name: selector
  shorthand: l
  usage: Selector (label query) to filter on
inherited_options:
- name: alsologtostderr
  default_value: "false"
  usage: log to standard error as well as files
- name: api-version
  usage: |
    DEPRECATED: The API version to use when talking to the server
- name: certificate-authority
  usage: Path to a cert. file for the certificate authority.
- name: client-certificate
  usage: Path to a client certificate file for TLS.
- name: client-key
  usage: Path to a client key file for TLS.
- name: cluster
  usage: The name of the kubeconfig cluster to use
- name: context
  usage: The name of the kubeconfig context to use
- name: insecure-skip-tls-verify
  default_value: "false"
  usage: |
    If true, the server's certificate will not be checked for validity. This will make your HTTPS connections insecure.
- name: kubeconfig
  usage: Path to the kubeconfig file to use for CLI requests.
- name: log-backtrace-at
  default_value: :0
  usage: when logging hits line file:N, emit a stack trace
- name: log-dir
  usage: If non-empty, write log files in this directory
- name: log-flush-frequency
  default_value: 5s
  usage: Maximum number of seconds between log flushes
- name: logtostderr
  default_value: "true"
  usage: log to standard error instead of files
- name: match-server-version
  default_value: "false"
  usage: Require server version to match client version
- name: namespace
  usage: If present, the namespace scope for this CLI request.
- name: password
  usage: Password for basic authentication to the API server.
- name: server
  shorthand: s
  usage: The address and port of the Kubernetes API server
- name: stderrthreshold
  default_value: "2"
  usage: logs at or above this threshold go to stderr
- name: token
  usage: Bearer token for authentication to the API server.
- name: user
  usage: The name of the kubeconfig user to use
- name: username
  usage: Username for basic authentication to the API server.
- name: v
  default_value: "0"
  usage: log level for V logs
- name: vmodule
  usage: |
    comma-separated list of pattern=N settings for file-filtered logging
example: |-
  # Describe a node
  kubectl describe nodes kubernetes-minion-emt8.c.myproject.internal

  # Describe a pod
  kubectl describe pods/nginx

  # Describe a pod identified by type and name in "pod.json"
  kubectl describe -f pod.json

  # Describe all pods
  kubectl describe pods

  # Describe pods by label name=myLabel
  kubectl describe po -l name=myLabel

  # Describe all pods managed by the 'frontend' replication controller (rc-created pods
  # get the name of the rc as a prefix in the pod the name).
  kubectl describe pods frontend
see_also:
- kubectl