Usage of oc and kubectl commands¶

Because OpenShift Container Platform is a certified Kubernetes distribution, you can use the Kubernetes CLI (kubectl) that ships with OpenShift Container Platform to interact with your cluster. You can also gain extended functionality specific to OpenShift Container Platform by using the OpenShift CLI (oc) binary.

The oc binary¶

The OpenShift CLI (oc) binary offers the same capabilities as the kubectl binary, but it extends to natively support additional OpenShift Container Platform features.

Full support for OpenShift Container Platform resources

Resources such as DeploymentConfig, BuildConfig, Route, ImageStream, and ImageStreamTag objects are specific to OpenShift Container Platform distributions, and build upon standard Kubernetes primitives.

Authentication

The oc binary offers a built-in login command for authentication and lets you work with projects, which map Kubernetes namespaces to authenticated users. Read "Understanding authentication" for more information.

Additional commands

The additional command oc new-app, for example, makes it easier to get new applications started using existing source code or pre-built images. Similarly, the additional command oc new-project makes it easier to start a project that you can switch to as your default.

Non-security API changes will involve, at minimum, two minor releases (4.1 to 4.2 to 4.3, for example) to allow older oc binaries to update. Using new capabilities might require newer oc binaries. A 4.3 server might have additional capabilities that a 4.2 oc binary cannot use and a 4.3 oc binary might have additional capabilities that are unsupported by a 4.2 server.

Compatibility matrix

	X.Y (oc Client)	X.Y+N [versionpolicyn] (oc Client)
X.Y (Server)
X.Y+N [versionpolicyn] (Server)

Fully compatible.

oc client might not be able to access server features.

oc client might provide options and features that might not be compatible with the accessed server.

The kubectl binary¶

The Kubernetes CLI (kubectl) binary is provided as a means to support existing workflows and scripts for new OpenShift Container Platform users coming from a standard Kubernetes environment, or for those who prefer to use the kubectl CLI. Existing users of kubectl can continue to use the binary to interact with Kubernetes primitives, with no changes required to the OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

You can install the supported kubectl binary by following the steps to install the OpenShift CLI. The kubectl binary is included in the archive if you download the binary, or is installed when you install the CLI by using an RPM.