ref: https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/components
Components are the installable parts of the Google Cloud CLI. A component can be a command-line tool (gcloud, bq, and gsutil), a set of gcloud CLI commands at the Alpha or Beta release levels, or a package that contains dependencies used by a tool in the gcloud CLI.
The most commonly-used components are installed by default. If you run a gcloud alpha or gcloud beta command interactively and the alpha or beta component is not installed, the gcloud CLI asks you whether you want to install it. An affirmative response installs the component and then runs the command. Other components are installed on-demand by the gcloud CLI when you run commands that require them.
Default components
When you install the gcloud CLI, the following components are installed by default:
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
gcloud | Default gcloud CLI commands | Tool for interacting with Google Cloud. Only commands at the General Availability and Preview release levels are installed with this component. You must separately install the gcloud alpha Commands and/or gcloud beta Commands components if you want to use commands at other release levels. |
bq | BigQuery command-line tool | Tool for working with data in BigQuery |
gsutil | Legacy tool for performing Cloud Storage tasks. Use gcloud storage commands instead. | |
core | gcloud CLI core libraries | Libraries used internally by the gcloud CLI tools. |
Alpha and beta components
The gcloud CLI provides two components that contain gcloud CLI alpha and beta commands. These components aren’t installed by default, but you can install them manually at any time after the initial gcloud CLI installation. These components are:
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
alpha | gcloud CLI alpha commands | gcloud CLI commands at the alpha release level. |
beta | gcloud CLI beta commands | gcloud CLI commands at the beta release level. |
gcloud CLI commands at the General Availability release level are part of the gcloud CLI component and are installed automatically when you install the gcloud CLI.
A list of all available additional components and external package managers, which aren’t installed by default, appears below.
Managing gcloud CLI components
You can list, install, update, and remove gcloud CLI components to suit your needs.
Note: These instructions won’t work if you have installed gcloud CLI using a package manager such as APT or yum because gcloud CLI component manager is disabled when using that method of installation. Use these packages instead.
Caution: When modifying your installation, the current directory of your terminal must be outside the google-cloud-cli directory of the gcloud CLI installation. On Windows, you will need to open your terminal as an Administrator if you have performed an All Users installation.
Listing components
To see a list of components that are available and currently installed, run gcloud components list:
gcloud components list
The following sample isn’t a complete listing of all available components. To view the latest component offerings, update your gcloud CLI installation and then run gcloud components list.
| Status | Component Name | ID | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Installed | App Engine Go Extensions | app-engine-go | 97.7 MiB |
| Not Installed | AppCtl | appctl | 21.0 MiB |
| Installed | Cloud Bigtable Command Line Tool | cbt | 4.0 MiB |
| Installed | Cloud Bigtable Emulator | bigtable | 3.8 MiB |
| Installed | Cloud Datastore Emulator | cloud-datastore-emulator | 17.8 MiB |
| Not Installed | Cloud Firestore Emulator | cloud-firestore-emulator | 60.4 MiB |
| Installed | Cloud Pub/Sub Emulator | pubsub-emulator | 33.2 MiB |
| Installed | Cloud SQL Proxy | cloud_sql_proxy | 7.6 MiB |
| Installed | Cloud Spanner Emulator | cloud-spanner-emulator | 21.8 MiB |
| Installed | Google Cloud Build Local Builder | cloud-build-local | 4.4 MiB |
| Installed | gcloud app Java Extensions | app-engine-java | 118.9 MiB |
| Installed | gcloud app PHP Extensions | app-engine-php | 21.9 MiB |
| Installed | gcloud app Python Extensions (Extra Libraries) | app-engine-python-extras | 27.8 MiB |
| Installed | kubectl | kubectl | 12.2 MiB |
| Installed | Cloud BigQuery Command Line Tool | bq | < 1 MiB |
| Installed | Cloud SDK Core Libraries | core | 7.2 MiB |
| Installed | Cloud Storage Command Line Tool | gsutil | 3.3 MiB |
| Installed | gcloud Alpha Commands | alpha | < 1 MiB |
| Installed | gcloud Beta Commands | beta | < 1 MiB |
| Installed | gcloud app Python Extensions | app-engine-python | 6.1 MiB |
Installing components
To install a component at the current version of your gcloud CLI installation, run gcloud components install:
gcloud components install [COMPONENT-ID]
The gcloud CLI installs the specified component.
For example, if you want to install the kubectl command:
gcloud components install kubectl
Updating components
Use the gcloud components update command to update all installed components to the latest available version of gcloud CLI:
gcloud components update
If you have an older version of the gcloud CLI installed, the gcloud CLI updates all the installed components.
If you need to revert to a previously known good version and installed the gcloud CLI directly (outside of a package manager, including using the interactive installer, static versions, Windows installer, or Homebrew), use gcloud components update to revert to the specified version:
gcloud components update --version VERSION
For downgrading versions of the gcloud CLI installed using a package manager, refer to these instructions for specifying versions when downloading using apt-get or yum.
Removing components
Use the gcloud components remove command to remove a specified component by its ID:
gcloud components remove [COMPONENT-ID]
You can re-install a component using the gcloud components install command at any time.
Additional components
Additional components that contain dependencies for gcloud CLI commands are also available in the gcloud CLI, but aren’t installed by default. For an exhaustive list of components, run gcloud components list. Additional components that can be installed are marked with the status Not Installed.
External package managers
If you installed the gcloud CLI through the apt or yum package managers, you can also install additional gcloud CLI components using those same package managers. If your package manager cannot find these packages, read the installing with apt or installing with yum guides to learn how to configure https://packages.cloud.google.com/ as a package source.
| gcloud CLI component | APT Package | YUM Package |
|---|---|---|
app-engine-go | google-cloud-cli-app-engine-go | google-cloud-cli-app-engine-go |
app-engine-java | google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java | google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java |
app-engine-python | google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python | google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python |
bigtable | google-cloud-cli-bigtable-emulator | google-cloud-cli-bigtable-emulator |
cbt | google-cloud-cli-cbt | google-cloud-cli-cbt |
cloud-build-local | google-cloud-cli-cloud-build-local | google-cloud-cli-cloud-build-local |
docker-credential-gcr | Not yet available. | Not yet available. |
gcd-emulator | google-cloud-cli-datastore-emulator | google-cloud-cli-datastore-emulator |
kubectl | kubectl | kubectl |
pubsub-emulator | google-cloud-cli-pubsub-emulator | google-cloud-cli-pubsub-emulator |