Linux

If installing from the official package repository doesn't work (or requires a specific version), you can download the static binaries and place them in the following paths:

~/bin

File mode

The binary kubectl has to be executable.

chmod +x ~/bin/kubectl

Add to PATH

On Linux, you can add the ~/bin directory to your PATH environment variable to make the kubectl command available to all users on the system.
If kubectl is placed in a different directory, you can change the path to that directory.

export PATH=$PATH:~/bin

Autocomplete

On most Linux distributions, you have to install the bash-completion package to enable autocompletion.

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install bash-completion

CentOS/RHEL

sudo yum install bash-completion

Fedora

sudo dnf install bash-completion

Bash

To enable bash autocompletion, add the following to your ~/.bashrc file:

source <(kubectl completion bash)

Zsh

To enable zsh autocompletion, add the following to your ~/.zshrc file:

source <(kubectl completion zsh)

Verify

Verify that the kubectl command is available at the Verify page.