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salehi/k8s exec into a pod by label.md

Created January 4, 2026 20:52
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k8s exec into a pod by label.md

Exec into a Pod by Label

kubectl exec doesn't support label selectors directly. Use a subshell to grab the pod name first:

kubectl exec -it $(kubectl get pod -l app.kubernetes.io/name=api -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}') -- bash

Edge Cases

  • Multiple pods? This grabs the first one. List all with:
  kubectl get pod -l app.kubernetes.io/name=api
  • Multi-container pod? Add -c <container-name>
  • Different namespace? Add -n <namespace> to both commands
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