Install kubectl on Ubuntu 22.04 using bash

Getting started with Kubernetes you will need kubectl command line tool.

1. Install kubectl binary

This command will bring down the latest version.

curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"

If you want a specific version do:

curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"

Validate the binary

You should validate your download by using the checksum file, get it here:

curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl.sha256"

Validate the kubectl binary agains the checksum file:

echo "$(cat kubectl.sha256)  kubectl" | sha256sum --check

If ok it should output:

kubectl: OK

If it failed for some reason sha256 exits with nonzero status and outputs:

kubectl: FAILED sha256sum: WARNING: 1 computed checksum did NOT match

Check you URL and try again.

3. Finally Install kubectl

sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl

Command downloads the binary to you local bin to a folder called kubectl with the required permissions.

Chmod owner

✅ Owner can read

✅ Owner can write

✅ Owner can execute

Chmod group

✅ Group can read

❌ Group can't write

✅ Group can execute

Chmod other

✅ Others can read

❌ Others can't write

❌ Others can execute

4. Check to ensure all went well

kubectl version

outputs:

Client Version: v1.25.4
Kustomize Version: v4.5.7
Error from server (NotFound): the server could not find the requested resource