JSONPath Support

Kubectl supports JSONPath template.

JSONPath template is composed of JSONPath expressions enclosed by curly braces {}. Kubectl uses JSONPath expressions to filter on specific fields in the JSON object and format the output. In addition to the original JSONPath template syntax, the following functions and syntax are valid:

  1. Use double quotes to quote text inside JSONPath expressions.
  2. Use the range, end operators to iterate lists.
  3. Use negative slice indices to step backwards through a list. Negative indices do not "wrap around" a list and are valid as long as -index + listLength >= 0.

Given the JSON input:

{
  "kind": "List",
  "items":[
    {
      "kind":"None",
      "metadata":{
        "name":"127.0.0.1",
        "labels":{
          "kubernetes.io/hostname":"127.0.0.1"
        }
      },
      "status":{
        "capacity":{"cpu":"4"},
        "addresses":[{"type": "LegacyHostIP", "address":"127.0.0.1"}]
      }
    },
    {
      "kind":"None",
      "metadata":{"name":"127.0.0.2"},
      "status":{
        "capacity":{"cpu":"8"},
        "addresses":[
          {"type": "LegacyHostIP", "address":"127.0.0.2"},
          {"type": "another", "address":"127.0.0.3"}
        ]
      }
    }
  ],
  "users":[
    {
      "name": "myself",
      "user": {}
    },
    {
      "name": "e2e",
      "user": {"username": "admin", "password": "secret"}
    }
  ]
}
Function Description Example Result
text the plain text kind is {.kind} kind is List
@ the current object {@} the same as input
. or [] child operator {.kind}, {['kind']} or {['name\.type']} List
.. recursive descent {..name} 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.2 myself e2e
* wildcard. Get all objects {.items[*].metadata.name} [127.0.0.1 127.0.0.2]
[start:end:step] subscript operator {.users[0].name} myself
[,] union operator {.items[*]['metadata.name', 'status.capacity']} 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.2 map[cpu:4] map[cpu:8]
?() filter {.users[?(@.name=="e2e")].user.password} secret
range, end iterate list {range .items[*]}[{.metadata.name}, {.status.capacity}] {end} [127.0.0.1, map[cpu:4]] [127.0.0.2, map[cpu:8]]
'' quote interpreted string {range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}{'\t'}{end} 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.2
\ escape termination character {.items[0].metadata.labels.kubernetes\.io/hostname} 127.0.0.1

Examples using kubectl and JSONPath expressions:

kubectl get pods -o json
kubectl get pods -o=jsonpath='{@}'
kubectl get pods -o=jsonpath='{.items[0]}'
kubectl get pods -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}'
kubectl get pods -o=jsonpath="{.items[*]['metadata.name', 'status.capacity']}"
kubectl get pods -o=jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}{"\t"}{.status.startTime}{"\n"}{end}'
kubectl get pods -o=jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.labels.kubernetes\.io/hostname}'
Last modified July 28, 2023 at 10:47 AM PST: Fix inconsistent command in the JSONPath Support page (2987c60d92)