Components are the installable parts of the Google Cloud CLI. A componentcan be a command-line tool (gcloud,bq, andgsutil), a set ofgcloud CLI commands at the Alpha or Betarelease levels, or a packagethat contains dependencies used by a tool in the gcloud CLI.

The most commonly-used components are installed by default. If you run agcloud alpha orgcloud beta command interactively and thealpha orbetacomponent is not installed, the gcloud CLI asks you whether youwant to install it. An affirmative response installs the component and then runsthe command. Other components are installed on-demand by thegcloud CLI when you run commands that require them.

Default components

When you install the gcloud CLI, the following components areinstalled by default:

Alpha and beta components

The gcloud CLI provides two components that containgcloud CLI alpha and beta commands. These components aren'tinstalled by default, but you can install them manually at any time after theinitial gcloud CLI installation. These components are:

gcloud CLI commands at the General Availability release level arepart of the gcloud CLI component and are installed automaticallywhen you install the gcloud CLI.

A list of all availableadditional components andexternal package managers, which aren't installedby default, appears below.

Managing gcloud CLI components

You can list, install, update, and remove gcloud CLI components tosuit your needs.

To see a list of components that are available and currently installed,rungcloud components list:

gcloud components list

The following sample isn't a complete listing of all available components. Toview the latest component offerings, update your gcloud CLIinstallation and then rungcloud components list.

Installing components

To install a component at the current version of your gcloud CLIinstallation, rungcloud components install:

gcloud components install[COMPONENT-ID]

The gcloud CLI installs the specified component.

For example, if you want to install thekubectl command:

gcloud components install kubectl

Updating components

Use thegcloud components updatecommand to update all installed components to the latest available version ofgcloud CLI:

gcloud components update

If you have an older version of the gcloud CLI installed, thegcloud CLI updates all the installed components.

If you need to revert to a previously known good version and installed thegcloud CLI directly (outside of a package manager, including usingthe interactive installer, static versions, Windows installer, or Homebrew),usegcloud components update to revert to the specified version:

gcloud components update --versionVERSION

Removing components

Use thegcloud components removecommand to remove a specified component by its ID:

gcloud components remove[COMPONENT-ID]

You can re-install a component using thegcloud components install commandat any time.

Additional components

Additional components that contain dependencies for gcloud CLIcommands are also available in the gcloud CLI, but aren't installed bydefault. For an exhaustive list of components, rungcloud components list.Additional components that can be installed are marked with the statusNot Installed.

External package managers

If you installed the gcloud CLI through theaptoryum package managers, you can also installadditional gcloud CLI components using those same package managers. If yourpackage manager cannot find these packages, read theinstalling with apt orinstalling with yum guides to learn how to configurehttps://packages.cloud.google.com/ as a package source.