---
name: "kubectl-describe"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "kubectl"
version: "1.37.2-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/kubectl-describe"
---

# kubectl-describe(1)

Show details of a specific resource or group of resources

Eric Paris Jan 2015

## NAME

kubectl describe - Show details of a specific resource or group of resources

## SYNOPSIS

**kubectl describe** \[OPTIONS\]

## DESCRIPTION

Show details of a specific resource or group of resources.

Print a detailed description of the selected resources, including related resources such as events or controllers. You may select a single object by name, all objects of that type, provide a name prefix, or label selector. For example:

```
    $ 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.

Use "kubectl api-resources" for a complete list of supported resources.

## OPTIONS

**-A**, **--all-namespaces**=false\
 	If present, list the requested object(s) across all namespaces. Namespace in current context is ignored even if specified with --namespace.

**--chunk-size**=500\
 	Return large lists in chunks rather than all at once. Pass 0 to disable.

**-f**, **--filename**=\[\]\
 	Filename, directory, or URL to files containing the resource to describe

**-k**, **--kustomize**=""\
 	Process the kustomization directory. This flag can't be used together with -f or -R.

**-R**, **--recursive**=false\
 	Process the directory used in -f, --filename recursively. Useful when you want to manage related manifests organized within the same directory.

**-l**, **--selector**=""\
 	Selector (label query) to filter on, supports '=', '==', '!=', 'in', 'notin'.(e.g. -l key1=value1,key2=value2,key3 in (value3)). Matching objects must satisfy all of the specified label constraints.

**--show-events**=true\
 	If true, display events related to the described object. Defaults to true for a single object, false for multiple objects and prefix matching.

## OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS

**--as**=""\
 	Username to impersonate for the operation. User could be a regular user or a service account in a namespace.

**--as-group**=\[\]\
 	Group to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.

**--as-uid**=""\
 	UID to impersonate for the operation.

**--as-user-extra**=\[\]\
 	User extras to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple values for the same key.

**--cache-dir**="/home/username/.kube/cache"\
 	Default cache directory

**--certificate-authority**=""\
 	Path to a cert file for the certificate authority

**--client-certificate**=""\
 	Path to a client certificate file for TLS

**--client-key**=""\
 	Path to a client key file for TLS

**--cluster**=""\
 	The name of the kubeconfig cluster to use

**--context**=""\
 	The name of the kubeconfig context to use

**--disable-compression**=false\
 	If true, opt-out of response compression for all requests to the server

**--insecure-skip-tls-verify**=false\
 	If true, the server's certificate will not be checked for validity. This will make your HTTPS connections insecure

**--kubeconfig**=""\
 	Path to the kubeconfig file to use for CLI requests.

**--kuberc**=""\
 	Path to the kuberc file to use for preferences. This can be disabled by exporting KUBECTL\_KUBERC=false feature gate or turning off the feature KUBERC=off.

**--match-server-version**=false\
 	Require server version to match client version

**-n**, **--namespace**=""\
 	If present, the namespace scope for this CLI request

**--password**=""\
 	Password for basic authentication to the API server

**--profile**="none"\
 	Name of profile to capture. One of (none\|cpu\|heap\|goroutine\|threadcreate\|block\|mutex\|trace)

**--profile-output**="profile.pprof"\
 	Name of the file to write the profile to

**--proxy-url**=""\
 	Proxy URL to use for requests to the API server

**--request-timeout**="0"\
 	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.

**-s**, **--server**=""\
 	The address and port of the Kubernetes API server

**--tls-server-name**=""\
 	Server name to use for server certificate validation. If it is not provided, the hostname used to contact the server is used

**--token**=""\
 	Bearer token for authentication to the API server

**--user**=""\
 	The name of the kubeconfig user to use

**--username**=""\
 	Username for basic authentication to the API server

**--version**=false\
 	\--version, --version=raw prints version information and quits; --version=vX.Y.Z... sets the reported version

**--warnings-as-errors**=false\
 	Treat warnings received from the server as errors and exit with a non-zero exit code

## EXAMPLE

```
  # 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 pods -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 name)
  kubectl describe pods frontend
```

## SEE ALSO

**[kubectl(1)](/kubectl/1.md)**,

## HISTORY

January 2015, Originally compiled by Eric Paris (eparis at redhat dot com) based on the kubernetes source material, but hopefully they have been automatically generated since!