Managing gcloud CLI components

Components are the installable parts of the Google Cloud CLI. A component can be a command-line tool ( gcloud , bq , and gsutil ), a set of gcloud CLI commands at the Alpha or Beta release levels , or a package that contains dependencies used by a tool in the gcloud CLI.

The most commonly-used components are installed by default. If you run a gcloud alpha or gcloud beta command interactively and the alpha or beta component is not installed, the gcloud CLI asks you whether you want to install it. An affirmative response installs the component and then runs the command. Other components are installed on-demand by the gcloud CLI when you run commands that require them.

Default components

When you install the gcloud CLI, the following components are installed by default:

Alpha and beta components

The gcloud CLI provides two components that contain gcloud CLI alpha and beta commands. These components aren't installed by default, but you can install them manually at any time after the initial gcloud CLI installation. These components are:

gcloud CLI commands at the General Availability release level are part of the gcloud CLI component and are installed automatically when you install the gcloud CLI.

A list of all available additional components and external package managers , which aren't installed by default, appears below.

Managing gcloud CLI components

You can list, install, update, and remove gcloud CLI components to suit your needs.

Listing components

To see a list of components that are available and currently installed, run gcloud components list :

 gcloud components list 

The following sample isn't a complete listing of all available components. To view the latest component offerings, update your gcloud CLI installation and then run gcloud components list .

Installing components

To install a component at the current version of your gcloud CLI installation, run gcloud components install :

 gcloud components install [COMPONENT-ID] 
 

The gcloud CLI installs the specified component.

For example, if you want to install the kubectl command:

 gcloud components install kubectl 

Updating components

Use the gcloud components update command to update all installed components to the latest available version of gcloud CLI:

 gcloud components update 

If you have an older version of the gcloud CLI installed, the gcloud CLI updates all the installed components.

If you need to revert to a previously known good version and installed the gcloud CLI directly (outside of a package manager, including using the interactive installer, static versions, Windows installer, or Homebrew), use gcloud components update to revert to the specified version:

 gcloud components update --version VERSION 
 

Removing components

Use the gcloud components remove command to remove a specified component by its ID:

 gcloud components remove [COMPONENT-ID] 
 

You can re-install a component using the gcloud components install command at any time.

Additional components

Additional components that contain dependencies for gcloud CLI commands are also available in the gcloud CLI, but aren't installed by default. For an exhaustive list of components, run gcloud components list . Additional components that can be installed are marked with the status Not Installed .

External package managers

If you installed the gcloud CLI through the apt or yum package managers, you can also install additional gcloud CLI components using those same package managers. If your package manager cannot find these packages, read the installing with apt or installing with yum guides to learn how to configure https://packages.cloud.google.com/ as a package source.