debug_steps.md

Debugging containers in PODs

Standard way:

• To get a SHELL in the container:

# CONTAINER_NAME is optional if the Pod contains a single container
# short version for flags: -it, --stdin=false: Pass stdin to the container / --tty=false: Stdin is a TTY
kubectl exec --stdin --tty POD_NAME -c CONTAINER_NAME -- /bin/bash

• To Exec a binary from the container:

# run a individual command in the container
kubect exec POD_NAME -- ls

⚠️ if the specific binary was not baked into the container's image, most probably you'll get:

    error: Internal error occurred: error executing command in container: failed to exec in container: failed to start exec "58984e616235...": OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: unable to start container process: exec: "BINARY": executable file not found in $PATH: unknown

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Fancy way

• If you don't have the desired binaries or shell in the container, you can add a debugging container, a selection of images that can be used as debugging containers

# starting a debug container based on an image that has bash
kubectl debug pods/POD_NAME --image IMAGE_NAME -it --target CONTAINER_NAME -- bash