k8ConsoleViewer

README

This is a small console app designed for monitoring pod statuses in multiple namespaces.

At this moment it is aimed at MacOS and iTerm2.

Information displayed in tree like structure:

namespace / context
  group
    pod-1
      container-1
      container-2
    pod-2
      container-1
      container-2

Please note: group label is picked from controller owner reference name minus the unique identifier at the end, if it is not present it is picked from available labels on the pod deployment, statefulSet, job-name, app in the priority order listed. This might be not ideal but so far it worked fine in my use case.

---

How to use:

Please note: each context/namespace pair is a separate get pods call to Kubernetes with your credentials every 5 seconds, so be considerate with the number of namespaces you are monitoring.

• Download latest release from releases page
• Run ./k8ConsoleViewer -c <context> -n <namespace> (-c is optional and defaults to current context in .kube config)

Alternatively

• Create groups.json file alongside your download in the format similar to groups-sample.json - Run ./k8ConsoleViewer group <id> or ./k8ConsoleViewer group <name> based on the groups.json
• Run ./k8ConsoleViewer group to view available groups

Namespace name can contain wildcards for example 'foo*bar' will be converted to regex ^foo.*bar$ and compared to all namespaces in given context. Regex itself is not available, for now.

When using wildcard namespace name need to be in quotes, to correctly pass parameter to the application.
./k8ConsoleViewer -c foo -n "bar*"

Hard coded Shortcuts/Hotkeys:

• e - expand one level
• c - collapse one level
• left - collapse item / navigate to parent item
• right - expand item
• PgUp - scroll up a page
• PgDn - scroll down a page
• Home - scroll to the top
• End - scroll to the end

Configurable clipboard shortcuts

There is a way to change default clipboard shortcuts and create your own templates. Place config.yaml alongside the executable and modify it to your liking.

Example:

clipboardShortcuts:
  # Element type where the cursor is positioned.
  namespace:
    # Shortcut keys 0-9 and a-z, some other characters can work, but not tested.
    'a':
      # Display name in footer
      name: "get all"
      # Shortcut template to be copied in your clipboard.
      template: "kubectl --context {{.Context}} -n {{.Namespace}} get all"

See more details in the config file.

---

iTerm2 integration

iTerm2 Python Api is used to open new window, split it and execute a command with broadcast.

There are several prerequisites to enable iTerm2 Api:

• Python3 and dependencies:

brew install python3  
pip3 install iterm2  
pip3 install pyobjc  

• Enable Python API in iTerm2
  text Preferences -> General -> Magic -> Enable Python Api

Shortcuts:

• Ctrl + E - exec in all containers in the pod group
• Ctrl + L - get logs from all containers in pod group
• Ctrl + K - follow logs from all containers in pod group

---

Symlink to /url/local/bin

You can make a symlink to /url/local/bin to launch it from anywhere ln -s <path to the app executable> /usr/local/bin/<prefered name>

For example ln -s ~/Tools/k8ConsoleViewer/k8ConsoleViewer /usr/local/bin/k8viewer

---

Updating the app

• Run ./k8ConsoleViewer update and follow the instructions.
  This will get latest release(if different), backup existing app and replace it with a new version.

(There is an hourly rate limit per IP for the Github releases endpoint, so if you will get 403, try again later)