---
title: kubectl describe
---

## kubectl describe

Show details of a specific resource or group of resources

### Synopsis


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.

Valid resource types include:

  * clusters (valid only for federation apiservers)
  * componentstatuses (aka 'cs')
  * configmaps (aka 'cm')
  * daemonsets (aka 'ds')
  * deployments (aka 'deploy')
  * endpoints (aka 'ep')
  * events (aka 'ev')
  * horizontalpodautoscalers (aka 'hpa')
  * ingresses (aka 'ing')
  * jobs
  * limitranges (aka 'limits')
  * namespaces (aka 'ns')
  * networkpolicies
  * nodes (aka 'no')
  * persistentvolumeclaims (aka 'pvc')
  * persistentvolumes (aka 'pv')
  * pods (aka 'po')
  * podsecuritypolicies (aka 'psp')
  * podtemplates
  * replicasets (aka 'rs')
  * replicationcontrollers (aka 'rc')
  * resourcequotas (aka 'quota')
  * secrets
  * serviceaccounts (aka 'sa')
  * services (aka 'svc')
  * statefulsets
  * storageclasses
  * thirdpartyresources

```
kubectl describe (-f FILENAME | TYPE [NAME_PREFIX | -l label] | TYPE/NAME)
```

### Examples

```
  # Describe a node
  kubectl describe nodes kubernetes-node-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
```

### Options

```
      --all-namespaces         If present, list the requested object(s) across all namespaces. Namespace in current context is ignored even if specified with --namespace.
  -f, --filename stringSlice   Filename, directory, or URL to files containing the resource to describe
  -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
      --show-events            If true, display events related to the described object. (default true)
```

### Options inherited from parent commands

```
      --alsologtostderr                  log to standard error as well as files
      --as string                        Username to impersonate for the operation
      --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
      --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.
      --log-backtrace-at traceLocation   when logging hits line file:N, emit a stack trace (default :0)
      --log-dir string                   If non-empty, write log files in this directory
      --logtostderr                      log to standard error instead of files
      --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
      --request-timeout string           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. (default "0")
  -s, --server string                    The address and port of the Kubernetes API server
      --stderrthreshold severity         logs at or above this threshold go to stderr (default 2)
      --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
  -v, --v Level                          log level for V logs
      --vmodule moduleSpec               comma-separated list of pattern=N settings for file-filtered logging
```



###### Auto generated by spf13/cobra on 13-Dec-2016

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