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kail

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kubernetes log viewer

// repository documentation

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# kail: kubernetes tail [![Build Status](https://github.com/boz/kail/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/boz/kail/actions/workflows/ci.yml)

Kubernetes tail.  Streams logs from all containers of all matched pods.  Match pods by service, replicaset, deployment, and others.  Adjusts to a changing cluster - pods are added and removed from logging as they fall in or out of the selection.

[![asciicast](https://asciinema.org/a/133521.png)](https://asciinema.org/a/133521)

## Usage

With no arguments, kail matches all pods in the cluster.  You can control the matching pods with arguments which select pods based on various criteria.

All flags can be set by an environment variable - `KAIL_POD=foo kail` is the same as `kail --pod foo`.

### Selectors

Flag | Selection
--- | ---
`-l, --label LABEL-SELECTOR` | match pods based on a [standard label selector](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/working-with-objects/labels/)
`-p, --pod NAME` | match pods by name
`-n, --ns, --namespace NAMESPACE-NAME` | match pods in the given namespace
`--svc NAME` | match pods belonging to the given service
`--rc NAME` | match pods belonging to the given replication controller
`--rs NAME` | match pods belonging to the given replica set
`-d, --deploy NAME` | match pods belonging to the given deployment
`--sts NAME` | match pods belonging to the given statefulset
`-j, --job NAME` | match pods belonging to the given job
`--node NODE-NAME` | match pods running on the given node
`--ing NAME` | match pods belonging to services targeted by the given ingress
`-c, --containers CONTAINER-NAME` | restrict which containers logs are shown for
`--ignore LABEL-SELECTOR` | Ignore pods that the selector matches. (default: `kail.ignore=true`)
`--current-ns` | Match pods in the namespace specified in Kubernetes' "current context"
`--ignore-ns NAME` | Ignore pods in the given namespaces.  Overridden by `--ns`, `--current-ns`. (default: `kube-system`)

#### Name Selection

When selecting objects by `NAME` (`--svc`, `--pod`, etc...), you can either qualify it with a namespace to restrict the selection to the given namespace, or select across all namespaces by giving just the object name.

Example:

```sh
# match pods belonging to a replicaset named 'workers' in any namespace.
$ kail --rs workers

# match pods belonging to the replicaset named 'workers' only in the 'staging' namespace
$ kail --rs staging/workers
```

#### Combining Selectors

If the same flag is used more than once, the selectors for that flag are "OR"ed together.

```sh
# match pods belonging to a replicaset named "workers" or "db"
$ kail --rs workers --rs db
```

Different flags are "AND"ed together:

```sh
# match pods belonging to both the service "frontend" and the deployment "webapp"
$ kail --svc frontend --deploy webapp
```

### Other Flags

Flag | Description
--- | ---
`-h, --help` | Display help and usage
`--context CONTEXT-NAME` | Use the given Kubernetes context
`--dry-run` | Print initial matched pods and exit
`--log-level LEVEL` | Set the logging level (default: `error`)
`--log-file PATH` | Write output to `PATH` (default: `/dev/stderr`)
`--since DURATION` | Display logs as old as given duration. Ex: `5s`, `2m`, `1.5h` or `2h45m` (defaults: `1s`). See [here](https://golang.org/pkg/time/#ParseDuration) for more information on the duration format.
`-o, --output` | You can choose to display logs in default, raw (without prefix), json, pretty json and zerolog formats.

## Installing

### Homebrew

```sh
$ brew tap boz/repo
$ brew install boz/repo/kail
```

### Krew

```sh
$ kubectl krew install tail
$ kubectl tail -h
```

### Downloading

Kail binaries for Linux and OSX can be found on the [latest release](https://github.com/boz/kail/releases/latest) page.  Download and install into your `$GOPATH/bin`.

### Running in a cluster with `kubectl`

The docker image [abozanich/kail](https://hub.docker.com/r/abozanich/kail/) is available for running `kail` from within a kubernetes pod via `kubectl`.

Note: be sure to include the `kail.ignore=true` label, otherwise... it's logging all the way down.

Example:

```sh
# match all pods - synonymous with 'kail' from the command line
$ kubectl run -it --rm -l kail.ignore=true --restart=Never --image=abozanich/kail kail

# match pods belonging to service 'api' in any namespace - synonymous with 'kail --svc api'
$ kubectl run -it --rm -l kail.ignore=true --restart=Never --image=abozanich/kail kail -- --svc api
```

## Building

### Install build and dev dependencies

* [govendor](https://github.com/kardianos/govendor)
* [minikube](https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/docs/start/)
* _linux only_: [musl-gcc](https://www.musl-libc.org/how.html) for building docker images.

### Install source code and golang dependencies

```sh
$ go get -d github.com/boz/kail
$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/boz/kail
$ make install-deps
```

### Build binary

```sh
$ make
```

### Install run against a demo cluster

```sh
$ minikube start
$ ./_example/demo.sh start
$ ./kail

# install image into minikube and run via kubectl
$ make image-minikube
$ kubectl run -it --rm -l kail.ignore=true --restart=Never --image=kail kail
```

### Stress testing

Start minikube with a fair amount of CPU and memory.

```sh
$ minikube start --cpus 4 --memory 8192
```

Start [`stress.yml`](_example/stress.yml) resources.

```sh
$ kubectl create -f _example/stress.yml
```

Wait a while for the pods to run

```sh
$ kubectl get pods --namespace stress | grep Running | wc -l
100
```

Run kail

```sh
./kail --ns stress
```

kail

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