kubectl get pods: Output Formats Guide

💡 Quick Answer: kubectl get pods lists pods in the current namespace. Add -o wide for node/IP info, -o yaml for full spec, -l app=nginx for label filtering, --all-namespaces for cluster-wide view, and --field-selector status.phase=Running for phase filtering. Use -o jsonpath='{.items[*].metadata.name}' to extract specific fields.

The Problem

Default kubectl get pods output is limited:

• Doesn’t show which node pods run on
• Can’t filter by status, label, or field efficiently
• No easy way to extract specific fields for scripting
• Custom columns require knowing the syntax

The Solution

Basic Output Formats

# Default table output
kubectl get pods
# NAME      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
# nginx-1   1/1     Running   0          5m

# Wide output (node, IP, nominated node)
kubectl get pods -o wide
# NAME      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE   IP           NODE
# nginx-1   1/1     Running   0          5m    10.244.1.5   worker-1

# YAML output (full spec)
kubectl get pod nginx-1 -o yaml

# JSON output
kubectl get pod nginx-1 -o json

# Just pod names
kubectl get pods -o name
# pod/nginx-1
# pod/nginx-2

Label Selectors

# Filter by label
kubectl get pods -l app=nginx
kubectl get pods -l 'app in (nginx, apache)'
kubectl get pods -l 'app!=redis'
kubectl get pods -l 'tier=frontend,app=nginx'

# Show labels in output
kubectl get pods --show-labels
# NAME      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE   LABELS
# nginx-1   1/1     Running   0          5m    app=nginx,tier=frontend

# Filter by label existence
kubectl get pods -l 'app'          # has label 'app'
kubectl get pods -l '!canary'      # doesn't have label 'canary'

Field Selectors

# Running pods only
kubectl get pods --field-selector status.phase=Running

# Pods on a specific node
kubectl get pods --field-selector spec.nodeName=worker-1

# Not in Succeeded phase
kubectl get pods --field-selector status.phase!=Succeeded

# Combine field selectors
kubectl get pods --field-selector 'status.phase=Running,spec.nodeName=worker-1'

# All namespaces, failed pods
kubectl get pods -A --field-selector status.phase=Failed

JSONPath Queries

# Get pod IPs
kubectl get pods -o jsonpath='{.items[*].status.podIP}'
# 10.244.1.5 10.244.2.3

# Pod names and their nodes
kubectl get pods -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}{"\t"}{.spec.nodeName}{"\n"}{end}'

# Container images per pod
kubectl get pods -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}: {.spec.containers[*].image}{"\n"}{end}'

# Restart counts
kubectl get pods -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.name}: {.status.containerStatuses[0].restartCount}{"\n"}{end}'

# Pods with high restart count
kubectl get pods -o json | jq '.items[] | select(.status.containerStatuses[0].restartCount > 5) | .metadata.name'

Custom Columns

# Define custom columns
kubectl get pods -o custom-columns=\
NAME:.metadata.name,\
STATUS:.status.phase,\
NODE:.spec.nodeName,\
IP:.status.podIP

# From a file
cat <<EOF > columns.txt
NAME          RESTARTS                                         NODE
metadata.name status.containerStatuses[0].restartCount         spec.nodeName
EOF
kubectl get pods -o custom-columns-file=columns.txt

Sorting and Counting

# Sort by restart count
kubectl get pods --sort-by='.status.containerStatuses[0].restartCount'

# Sort by creation time
kubectl get pods --sort-by='.metadata.creationTimestamp'

# Sort by node
kubectl get pods --sort-by='.spec.nodeName'

# Count pods by status
kubectl get pods -A --no-headers | awk '{print $4}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn
#  142 Running
#    5 Pending
#    2 CrashLoopBackOff

Watch Mode

# Watch pod changes in real time
kubectl get pods -w

# Watch with wide output
kubectl get pods -o wide -w

# Watch specific pod
kubectl get pod nginx-1 -w

All Namespaces

# All pods across all namespaces
kubectl get pods -A
kubectl get pods --all-namespaces

# System pods
kubectl get pods -n kube-system

# Count per namespace
kubectl get pods -A --no-headers | awk '{print $1}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Common Issues

“No resources found” but pods exist

Wrong namespace. Use -n <namespace> or -A for all namespaces.

jsonpath returns empty

Check field path with kubectl get pod <name> -o yaml first. Common mistake: using status.containerStatuses on pods that haven’t started yet.

Custom columns showing <none>

Field doesn’t exist for that pod. Use jsonpath with ?(@.field) for conditional access.

Best Practices

• Use -o wide by default — node and IP info helps debugging
• Label everything — enables powerful -l filtering
• -A for cluster overview — see pods across all namespaces
• --sort-by for troubleshooting — find highest restart counts or oldest pods
• Pipe to jq for complex filtering — more flexible than jsonpath

Key Takeaways

• -o wide adds node name, pod IP, and readiness gates
• -l for label selectors, --field-selector for status/node filtering
• -o jsonpath and -o custom-columns for scripting and custom views
• --sort-by orders by any field path in the pod spec
• -A or --all-namespaces for cluster-wide pod listing