---
name: "kubectl-diff"
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-diff"
---

# kubectl-diff(1)

Diff the live version against a would-be applied version

Eric Paris Jan 2015

## NAME

kubectl diff - Diff the live version against a would-be applied version

## SYNOPSIS

**kubectl diff** \[OPTIONS\]

## DESCRIPTION

Diff configurations specified by file name or stdin between the current online configuration, and the configuration as it would be if applied.

The output is always YAML.

KUBECTL\_EXTERNAL\_DIFF environment variable can be used to select your own diff command. Users can use external commands with params too, example: KUBECTL\_EXTERNAL\_DIFF="colordiff -N -u"

By default, the "diff" command available in your path will be run with the "-u" (unified diff) and "-N" (treat absent files as empty) options.

Exit status: 0 No differences were found. 1 Differences were found. \>1 Kubectl or diff failed with an error.

Note: KUBECTL\_EXTERNAL\_DIFF, if used, is expected to follow that convention.

## OPTIONS

**--concurrency**=1\
 	Number of objects to process in parallel when diffing against the live version. Larger number = faster, but more memory, I/O and CPU over that shorter period of time.

**--field-manager**="kubectl-client-side-apply"\
 	Name of the manager used to track field ownership.

**-f**, **--filename**=\[\]\
 	Filename, directory, or URL to files contains the configuration to diff

**--force-conflicts**=false\
 	If true, server-side apply will force the changes against conflicts.

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

**--prune**=false\
 	Include resources that would be deleted by pruning. Can be used with -l and default shows all resources would be pruned

**--prune-allowlist**=\[\]\
 	Overwrite the default allowlist with  for --prune

**-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.

**--server-side**=false\
 	If true, apply runs in the server instead of the client.

**--show-managed-fields**=false\
 	If true, include managed fields in the diff.

**--show-secrets**=false\
 	If true, do not mask secret values in the diff.

## 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

```
  # Diff resources included in pod.json
  kubectl diff -f pod.json
  # Diff file read from stdin
  cat service.yaml | kubectl diff -f -
```

## 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!