gdcloud CLI overview

This overview document explains the gdcloud CLI, why it's useful, the installation workflow, and the various configuration methods for it to best suit your needs when operating in a Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped universe.

This document is for all audience groups that work on GDC that must use a dedicated command-line interface tool for their air-gapped hardware and software workflows. For more information, see Audiences for GDC air-gapped documentation .

What is the gdcloud CLI?

The gdcloud CLI is a set of tools to create and manage Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped resources. Use these tools to perform common tasks from the command line or through scripts and automation.

The gdcloud CLI allows you to bootstrap infrastructure, manage authentication, and customize local configurations.

Download and install the gdcloud CLI

To start using gdcloud CLI:

1. Download the bundle .
2. Install the tools .
3. Initialize the configuration .

The current gdcloud CLI version is 1.15. Download and install previous versions of the gdcloud CLI from the download archive .

Properties

The gdcloud CLI properties are settings that affect the behavior of the gdcloud CLI tools.

Enabling accessibility features

For a more streamlined screen reader experience, the gdcloud CLI comes with an accessibility/screen_reader property.

To enable the accessibility property, run:

 gdcloud  
config  
 set 
  
accessibility/screen_reader  
 true 
 

For more details about the accessibility features that come with the gdcloud CLI, see the Enabling accessibility features guide.

Configurations

A configuration is a set of gdcloud CLI properties. A configuration works like a profile .

When you start using the gdcloud CLI, you work with a single configuration named default and you can set properties by running the gdcloud init or gdcloud config set commands. The default configuration is suitable for most use cases.

To work with multiple projects or organizations, you can set up multiple configurations with gdcloud config configurations create and switch among the configurations. Within a configuration, you can customize properties. For example, to set your project within an active configuration use the project property:

 gdcloud  
config  
 set 
  
project  
 PROJECT_ID 
 

For a detailed account of these concepts, see Manage gdcloud CLI configurations .

Available gdcloud CLI bundles

GDC offers multiple gdcloud CLI bundle options to support different operating systems (OS) and download sizes. Choose the appropriate bundle based on your environment and role requirements.

For more information on all available gdcloud CLI commands, see the gdcloud CLI reference documentation .

What's next

• Download the gdcloud CLI
• Install the gdcloud CLI
• Manage gdcloud CLI configurations