bash auto-completion on macOS

    The kubectl completion script for Bash can be generated with . Sourcing this script in your shell enables kubectl completion.

    However, the kubectl completion script depends on bash-completion which you thus have to previously install.

    The instructions here assume you use Bash 4.1+. You can check your Bash’s version by running:

    If it is too old, you can install/upgrade it using Homebrew:

    1. brew install bash

    Homebrew usually installs it at /usr/local/bin/bash.

    You can test if you have bash-completion v2 already installed with type _init_completion. If not, you can install it with Homebrew:

    As stated in the output of this command, add the following to your ~/.bash_profile file:

    Reload your shell and verify that bash-completion v2 is correctly installed with type _init_completion.

    • Source the completion script in your ~/.bash_profile file:

      1. Add the completion script to the /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d directory:

      2. If you have an alias for kubectl, you can extend shell completion to work with that alias:

        1. echo 'alias k=kubectl' >>~/.bash_profile

      3. If you installed kubectl with Homebrew (as explained ), then the kubectl completion script should already be in . In that case, you don’t need to do anything.

      Last modified March 15, 2021 at 11:14 AM PST : Fix broken link (bf312020c)