kubectl command permission

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The .kube directory does not exist in your home directory. You can create this directory and then copy the k3s.yaml file to create your config file.

Here's how you can do it:

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mkdir -p $HOME/.kube
sudo cp /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml $HOME/.kube/config
sudo chown $(whoami):$(whoami) $HOME/.kube/config
sudo chmod 600 $HOME/.kube/config

Explanation of commands:

  • mkdir -p $HOME/.kube: This command creates the .kube directory in your home directory. The -p flag ensures that mkdir does not throw an error if the directory already exists and makes any necessary parent directories.
  • sudo cp /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml $HOME/.kube/config: This command copies the k3s.yaml file from /etc/rancher/k3s/ to your .kube directory and names the copied file config.
  • sudo chown $(whoami):$(whoami) $HOME/.kube/config: This command changes the ownership of the config file to your user. This is important because the file needs to be owned by the user who will be running kubectl commands.
  • sudo chmod 600 $HOME/.kube/config: This command changes the permissions of the config file so that only the owner can read and write to it, which is a good security practice for kubeconfig files.

Once you have completed these steps, try running kubectl get nodes again. You should no longer receive the permission issue if these steps are followed correctly.

These changes will persist across reboots, with the exception of the export command, which sets an environment variable for the current session. If you want to make the KUBECONFIG environment variable setting permanent, you can add it to your shell's profile script.

For example, if you're using Bash, you could add the export line to your .bashrc or .bash_profile:

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echo 'export KUBECONFIG=$HOME/.kube/config' >> $HOME/.bashrc

Or if you're using Zsh, you could add it to your .zshrc:

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echo 'export KUBECONFIG=$HOME/.kube/config' >> $HOME/.zshrc

After adding this line to the appropriate file, you'll need to either restart your terminal session or source the file (e.g., source $HOME/.bashrc or source $HOME/.zshrc) to load the changes. Once this is done, the KUBECONFIG variable will be set automatically every time you start a new shell session.

Make sure to replace $HOME with the actual path if your shell does not expand variables when running echo commands.

This way, you won't have to manually export the KUBECONFIG environment variable every time you open a new terminal session. It will be set permanently across reboots.

Apply the changes:
For the change to take effect in your current session, source the profile script:

For Bash:

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source ~/.bashrc

For Bash on macOS Catalina and later:

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source ~/.bash_profile