Pod File Explorer

Idea

By using kubectl/API we can create a GUI app that can :

• view all cluster configured on my system
• select a cluster
• view all pods
• choose a pod
• open file system
• browse files
• download files
• upload files

Components

• GUI-CORE a react app that can be used inside a shell (e.g. electron, vs-code webframe)
• NODE-API : an npm module that can connect with kubectl/K8s API to execute command and return results. can be used in any mode env (e.g. electron, vs-code extension)
• APP : An electron app

Todo

• detect all cluster in local kubectl config

• connect to a cluster

• list namespaces in a cluster

• list pods in a cluster

• get containers on a pod

• run kubectul exec in a node program

• run exec with file streams

• run exec with custom streams

• test spike with a cluster on AKS

• test spike on a with oauth protected ap

  Did not pickup auth token from kubeconfig.

  Need to check this.

• create ui interactions with mocks

  • promise based shell interaction in electron
  • Select a kubecontext file from explorer:
    • https://www.electronjs.org/docs/api/dialog#dialogshowopendialogsyncbrowserwindow-options
    • https://stackoverflow.com/a/38544277/1065020
  • create a tree explorer ui
  • kubectl found
  • kubectul not found, select file
  • select cluster
  • select namepsace
  • select pod
  • select cluster
  • update files dynamically in ui

• download a file

• upload a file

How to parse console outptuts and map it to a command ?

• Every output will end with a # on cli.
• For every command, append it with # so we can ignore echoed command
• when reading output, ignore all lines with a # at end

Contracts:

• loadKubeContext(path = null)

  • Get kubernetes configuration from the path

  • if path is null, read default kubeconfig file

  • Sets the kube config in current lib.

  • returns list of clusters and path:

    {
    	kubeContext : {
    		name: "/path/to/kubeconfig"
    	},
    	clusters: [
    		{name: ""},
        {name: ""},
        {name: ""},
    	]
    }

• getNameSpaces(kubeContextPath, clusterName)

  • Get list of namespaces in kubernetes cluster using the context file

  • The context should be already loaded in memory

  • returns list of names spaces

    {
    	kubeContext : {name: "/path/to/kubeconfig"},
    	cluster: {name: "clusterName"}
    	namespaces: [
    		{name: ""},
        {name: ""},
        {name: ""},
    	]
    }

• getPods(kubeContextPath, clusterName, namespace)

  • get pods in namespace

    {
    	kubeContext : {name: "/path/to/kubeconfig"},
    	cluster: {name: "clusterName"},
      namespace: {name: "namespace"},
    	pods: [
    		{name: ""},
        {name: ""},
        {name: ""},
    	]
    }

• getContainers(kubeContextPath, clusterName, namespace, podName)

  • get containers in pods

    {
    	kubeContext : {name: "/path/to/kubeconfig"},
    	cluster: {name: "clusterName"},
      namespace: {name: "namespace"},
      pod: {name: "podName"},
    	containers: [
    		{name: ""},
        {name: ""},
        {name: ""},
    	]
    }

• GetFiles(kubeContextPath, clusterName, namespace, podName, containerName, path)

  • Get files in the path

    {
    	kubeContext : {name: "/path/to/kubeconfig"},
    	cluster: {name: "clusterName"},
      namespace: {name: "namespace"},
      pod: {name: "podName"},
    	container: {name: "contaierName"},
    	path: "/path/to/dir",
    	contents: [
    		{name: "app", type: "file", created: "23/02/2021"},
        {name: "lib", type: "dir" , created: "23/02/2021"},
    	]
    }

window.appShell.apiClient.loadContext().then(console.log)

Resources

• K8s NodeJs API: https://github.com/kubernetes-client/javascript
• How kubectl exec works : https://erkanerol.github.io/post/how-kubectl-exec-works/
• exec implentation in node : https://github.com/kubernetes-client/javascript/blob/master/src/exec.ts
• exec example with nodejs: https://github.com/kubernetes-client/javascript/blob/master/examples/typescript/exec/exec-example.ts
• streams in nodejs : https://nodesource.com/blog/understanding-streams-in-nodejs/
• cp implementation in api: https://github.com/kubernetes-client/javascript/blob/master/src/cp.ts