kubectl-ips

A kubectl plugin that lists IP addresses from Kubernetes pods with flexible filtering options.

This plugin serves as both a useful tool for cluster administrators and developers who need to quickly identify pod IP addresses, and as an example of how to build a kubectl plugin using the same tools and helpers available to kubectl itself.

Features

• Lists all pod IP addresses (including multiple IPs per pod)
• Supports namespace filtering
• Label selector support for pod filtering
• Multiple output formats: table (default), wide, JSON, YAML, and name-only
• Shows pod names and namespaces by default, with option to show only IPs
• Kubernetes-style table output with status, age, and node information
• Sorted output for consistency
• Handles both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses

Installation

From Source

go install github.com/andreygrechin/kubectl-ips/cmd/kubectl-ips@latest

Manual Build

git clone https://github.com/andreygrechin/kubectl-ips.git
cd kubectl-ips
make build

Then copy the bin/kubectl-ips file to a directory in your PATH.

Usage

Basic Commands

List pod IPs in the current namespace:

kubectl ips

List pod IPs in all namespaces:

kubectl ips --all-namespaces
kubectl ips -A

List pod IPs in a specific namespace:

kubectl ips --namespace=kube-system
kubectl ips -n kube-system

Output Formats

Output in JSON format:

kubectl ips -o json

Output in YAML format:

kubectl ips -o yaml

Show only pod names:

kubectl ips -o name

Hide table headers:

kubectl ips --no-headers

Advanced Options

Show only IP addresses without pod names (legacy):

kubectl ips --show-ips-only

Filter pods by label selector:

kubectl ips --selector=app=nginx
kubectl ips -l app=nginx,env=production

Combine options:

kubectl ips -A --selector=app=nginx --no-headers

Output Examples

Default table format:

NAME                                 IP           STATUS    AGE
nginx-deployment-5d59d67564-8g7nm    10.244.0.5   Running   2d
nginx-deployment-5d59d67564-ktht2    10.244.1.3   Running   2d
nginx-deployment-5d59d67564-wnx8l    10.244.2.7   Running   2d

Wide format with additional information:

NAME                                 IP           STATUS    READY   RESTARTS   NODE          AGE
nginx-deployment-5d59d67564-8g7nm    10.244.0.5   Running   1/1     0          worker-node-1 2d
nginx-deployment-5d59d67564-ktht2    10.244.1.3   Running   1/1     0          worker-node-2 2d
nginx-deployment-5d59d67564-wnx8l    10.244.2.7   Running   1/1     0          worker-node-3 2d

With --all-namespaces:

NAMESPACE   NAME                                 IP           STATUS    AGE
default     nginx-deployment-5d59d67564-8g7nm    10.244.0.5   Running   2d
default     nginx-deployment-5d59d67564-ktht2    10.244.1.3   Running   2d
kube-system coredns-5d78c9869d-6mx58             10.244.0.2   Running   5d

With --show-ips-only flag (legacy format):

10.244.0.5
10.244.1.3
10.244.2.7

Command Line Options

Filtering Options

• --all-namespaces, -A: List pods from all namespaces
• --namespace, -n: Specify a particular namespace
• --selector, -l: Filter pods using label selectors

Output Options

• --output, -o: Output format (table, wide, json, yaml, name)
• --no-headers: Don't print column headers
• --show-labels: Show labels as the last column
• --show-ips-only: Display only IP addresses without pod names (legacy)

Standard Options

• Standard kubectl flags like --kubeconfig, --context, etc.

Implementation Details

The plugin uses the client-go library to connect to the Kubernetes cluster and list pods. It makes use of the genericclioptions in k8s.io/cli-runtime to generate a set of configuration flags which are in turn used to connect to the Kubernetes API server and retrieve pod information.

Key features of the implementation:

• Creates a custom kubectl command that follows standard patterns
• Uses the Kubernetes client-go library to interact with the cluster
• Lists and filters resources across namespaces
• Extracts IP addresses from each pod's status, supporting both single and multiple IP addresses per pod (dual-stack networking)
• By default shows pod names and namespaces for better context, with option to show only IP addresses
• Results are sorted for consistent output

Requirements

• kubectl installed and configured
• Go 1.24+ (for building from source)
• Access to a Kubernetes cluster
• Appropriate RBAC permissions to list pods

Development

Run tests:

make test

Format code:

make format

Run linter:

make lint

Cleanup

You can "uninstall" this plugin from kubectl by simply removing it from your PATH. In case of using "go install", you can also run:

go clean -i github.com/andreygrechin/kubectl-ips/cmd/kubectl-ips