---
title: kubectl patch
content_type: tool-reference
weight: 30
auto_generated: true
description: >-
  Update fields of a resource
no_list: true
---


<!--
The file is auto-generated from the Go source code of the component using a generic
[generator](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/reference-docs/). To learn how
to generate the reference documentation, please read
[Contributing to the reference documentation](/docs/contribute/generate-ref-docs/).
To update the reference content, please follow the
[Contributing upstream](/docs/contribute/generate-ref-docs/contribute-upstream/)
guide. You can file document formatting bugs against the
[reference-docs](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/reference-docs/) project.
-->


## {{% heading "synopsis" %}}


Update fields of a resource using strategic merge patch, a JSON merge patch, or a JSON patch.

 JSON and YAML formats are accepted.

 Note: Strategic merge patch is not supported for custom resources.

```
kubectl patch (-f FILENAME | TYPE NAME) [-p PATCH|--patch-file FILE]
```

## {{% heading "examples" %}}

```
  # Partially update a node using a strategic merge patch, specifying the patch as JSON
  kubectl patch node k8s-node-1 -p '{"spec":{"unschedulable":true}}'
  
  # Partially update a node using a strategic merge patch, specifying the patch as YAML
  kubectl patch node k8s-node-1 -p $'spec:\n unschedulable: true'
  
  # Partially update a node identified by the type and name specified in "node.json" using strategic merge patch
  kubectl patch -f node.json -p '{"spec":{"unschedulable":true}}'
  
  # Update a container's image; spec.containers[*].name is required because it's a merge key
  kubectl patch pod valid-pod -p '{"spec":{"containers":[{"name":"kubernetes-serve-hostname","image":"new image"}]}}'
  
  # Update a container's image using a JSON patch with positional arrays
  kubectl patch pod valid-pod --type='json' -p='[{"op": "replace", "path": "/spec/containers/0/image", "value":"new image"}]'
  
  # Update a deployment's replicas through the 'scale' subresource using a merge patch
  kubectl patch deployment nginx-deployment --subresource='scale' --type='merge' -p '{"spec":{"replicas":2}}'
```

## {{% heading "options" %}}

   <table style="width: 100%; table-layout: fixed;">
<colgroup>
<col span="1" style="width: 10px;" />
<col span="1" />
</colgroup>
<tbody>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--allow-missing-template-keys&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: true</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>If true, ignore any errors in templates when a field or map key is missing in the template. Only applies to golang and jsonpath output formats.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--dry-run string[="unchanged"]&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: "none"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Must be &quot;none&quot;, &quot;server&quot;, or &quot;client&quot;. If client strategy, only print the object that would be sent, without sending it. If server strategy, submit server-side request without persisting the resource.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--field-manager string&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: "kubectl-patch"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Name of the manager used to track field ownership.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">-f, --filename strings</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Filename, directory, or URL to files identifying the resource to update</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">-h, --help</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>help for patch</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">-k, --kustomize string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Process the kustomization directory. This flag can't be used together with -f or -R.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--local</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>If true, patch will operate on the content of the file, not the server-side resource.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">-o, --output string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Output format. One of: (json, yaml, kyaml, name, go-template, go-template-file, template, templatefile, jsonpath, jsonpath-as-json, jsonpath-file).</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">-p, --patch string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>The patch to be applied to the resource JSON file.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--patch-file string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>A file containing a patch to be applied to the resource.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">-R, --recursive</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Process the directory used in -f, --filename recursively. Useful when you want to manage related manifests organized within the same directory.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--show-managed-fields</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>If true, keep the managedFields when printing objects in JSON or YAML format.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--subresource string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>If specified, patch will operate on the subresource of the requested object.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--template string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Template string or path to template file to use when -o=go-template, -o=go-template-file. The template format is golang templates [http://golang.org/pkg/text/template/#pkg-overview].</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--type string&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: "strategic"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>The type of patch being provided; one of [json merge strategic]</p></td>
</tr>

</tbody>
</table>



## {{% heading "parentoptions" %}}

   <table style="width: 100%; table-layout: fixed;">
<colgroup>
<col span="1" style="width: 10px;" />
<col span="1" />
</colgroup>
<tbody>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--as string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Username to impersonate for the operation. User could be a regular user or a service account in a namespace.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--as-group strings</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Group to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--as-uid string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>UID to impersonate for the operation.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--as-user-extra strings</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>User extras to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple values for the same key.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--cache-dir string&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: "$HOME/.kube/cache"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Default cache directory</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--certificate-authority string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Path to a cert file for the certificate authority</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--client-certificate string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Path to a client certificate file for TLS</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--client-key string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Path to a client key file for TLS</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--cluster string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>The name of the kubeconfig cluster to use</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--context string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>The name of the kubeconfig context to use</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--disable-compression</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>If true, opt-out of response compression for all requests to the server</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--insecure-skip-tls-verify</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>If true, the server's certificate will not be checked for validity. This will make your HTTPS connections insecure</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--kubeconfig string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Path to the kubeconfig file to use for CLI requests.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--kuberc string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Path to the kuberc file to use for preferences. This can be disabled by exporting KUBECTL_KUBERC=false feature gate or turning off the feature KUBERC=off.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--match-server-version</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Require server version to match client version</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">-n, --namespace string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>If present, the namespace scope for this CLI request</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--password string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Password for basic authentication to the API server</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--profile string&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: "none"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Name of profile to capture. One of (none|cpu|heap|goroutine|threadcreate|block|mutex|trace)</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--profile-output string&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: "profile.pprof"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Name of the file to write the profile to</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--request-timeout string&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: "0"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>The length of time to wait before giving up on a single server request. Non-zero values should contain a corresponding time unit (e.g. 1s, 2m, 3h). A value of zero means don't timeout requests.</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">-s, --server string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>The address and port of the Kubernetes API server</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--storage-driver-buffer-duration duration&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: 1m0s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Writes in the storage driver will be buffered for this duration, and committed to the non memory backends as a single transaction</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--storage-driver-db string&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: "cadvisor"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>database name</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--storage-driver-host string&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: "localhost:8086"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>database host:port</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--storage-driver-password string&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: "root"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>database password</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--storage-driver-secure</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>use secure connection with database</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--storage-driver-table string&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: "stats"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>table name</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--storage-driver-user string&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Default: "root"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>database username</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--tls-server-name string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Server name to use for server certificate validation. If it is not provided, the hostname used to contact the server is used</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--token string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Bearer token for authentication to the API server</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--user string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>The name of the kubeconfig user to use</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--username string</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Username for basic authentication to the API server</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--version version[=true]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>--version, --version=raw prints version information and quits; --version=vX.Y.Z... sets the reported version</p></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2">--warnings-as-errors</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td><td style="line-height: 130%; word-wrap: break-word;"><p>Treat warnings received from the server as errors and exit with a non-zero exit code</p></td>
</tr>

</tbody>
</table>



## {{% heading "seealso" %}}

* [kubectl](../kubectl/)	 - kubectl controls the Kubernetes cluster manager