install.md

title	slug	weight
Installing	install	200

Krew itself is a kubectl plugin that is installed and updated via Krew (yes, Krew self-hosts).

⚠️ Warning: krew is only compatible with kubectl v1.12 or later.

• macOS/Linux: bash/zsh, fish
• Windows

macOS/Linux {#posix}

Bash or ZSH shells {#bash}

1. Make sure that git is installed.

2. Run this command to download and install krew:

   (
     set -x; cd "$(mktemp -d)" &&
     OS="$(uname | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')" &&
     ARCH="$(uname -m | sed -e 's/x86_64/amd64/' -e 's/\(arm\)\(64\)\?.*/\1\2/' -e 's/aarch64$/arm64/')" &&
     KREW="krew-${OS}_${ARCH}" &&
     curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/krew/releases/latest/download/${KREW}.tar.gz" &&
     tar zxvf "${KREW}.tar.gz" &&
     ./"${KREW}" install krew
   )

3. Add the $HOME/.krew/bin directory to your PATH environment variable. To do this, update your .bashrc or .zshrc file and append the following line:

   export PATH="${KREW_ROOT:-$HOME/.krew}/bin:$PATH"

   and restart your shell.

4. Run kubectl krew to check the installation.

Fish shell {#fish}

1. Make sure that git is installed.

2. Run this command in your terminal to download and install krew:

   begin
     set -x; set temp_dir (mktemp -d); cd "$temp_dir" &&
     set OS (uname | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]') &&
     set ARCH (uname -m | sed -e 's/x86_64/amd64/' -e 's/\(arm\)\(64\)\?.*/\1\2/' -e 's/aarch64$/arm64/') &&
     set KREW krew-$OS"_"$ARCH &&
     curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/krew/releases/latest/download/$KREW.tar.gz" &&
     tar zxvf $KREW.tar.gz &&
     ./$KREW install krew &&
     set -e KREW temp_dir &&
     cd -
   end

3. Add the $HOME/.krew/bin directory to your PATH environment variable. To do this, update your config.fish file and append the following line:

   set -gx PATH $PATH $HOME/.krew/bin

   and restart your shell.

4. Run kubectl krew to check the installation.

Windows {#windows}

1. Make sure git is installed.

2. Download krew.exe from the Releases page to a directory.

3. Launch a command prompt (cmd.exe) with administrator privileges (since the installation requires use of symbolic links) and navigate to that directory.

4. Run the following command to install krew:

   .\krew install krew

5. Add the %USERPROFILE%\.krew\bin directory to your PATH environment variable (how?)

6. Launch a new command-line window.

7. Run kubectl krew to check the installation.

Other package managers

You can alternatively install Krew via some OS-package managers like Homebrew (macOS).

However, that method is not actively supported at this time.