gcloud, a Python application, is the CLI tool for GCP. It’s a component of the Google Cloud SDK, which contains a variety of libraries and tools for interfacing with GCP.
In this article, we will explain "How to install gcloud on Linux" in two ways. First method is installing from repository, second method is using install script.
Gcloud Installation Methods
We will use the latest Ubuntu 22.04 (Debian based system) for the first method and Rocky Linux 9 (Redhat based system) for the second method. Let's talk about "How to install gcloud on Linux" with two methods.
Method-1 : Install Gcloud CLI on Ubuntu
Step-1: Update your system
First update the package list in Ubuntu:
foc@foc:~$ sudo apt update -y
Step-2: Install pre-requisite packages
Then install the necessary packages before installation:
foc@foc:~$ sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg
Step-3: Add Google Cloud Repo
Add the Google Cloud official storage address to your system.
foc@foc:~$ echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list
Note: Create a file under /etc/apt/sources.list.d
, not the /etc/apt/sources.list
file where the distribution's official repository addresses are located. This is a method that will not destabilize your system. It is recommended.
Then download the cloud.google.gpg
key and add it to your system:
foc@foc:~$ curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 2537 100 2537 0 0 4559 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 4554
After the Google Cloud repository is added, refresh the package list again:
foc@foc:~$ sudo apt update -y Hit:1 http://tr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease Hit:2 http://tr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease Get:3 http://tr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease [99.8 kB] Get:4 https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk InRelease [6,751 B] Get:5 https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk/main amd64 Packages [299 kB]
In this step, you should see that you are accessing "packages.cloud.google.com".
Step-4: Download and Install gcloud CLI
Then download gcloud from the repository:
foc@foc:~$ sudo apt install google-cloud-cli
After this command, the package is installed with its dependencies. Since you have added the Google Cloud repository to the system, you also have access to other applications in the storage.
Step-5: Verify the installation
Gcloud was installed on the system with the following version:
foc@foc:~$ gcloud version
Google Cloud SDK 395.0.0
alpha 2022.07.22
beta 2022.07.22
bq 2.0.75
bundled-python3-unix 3.9.12
core 2022.07.22
gsutil 5.11
Method - 2: Install Gcloud CLI on Rocky Linux
Step-1: Pre-requisites
Python versions you need to have on your system for Google Cloud CLI:
- Python 3 (3.5 - 3.8, 3.7 recommended)
- Python 2 (2,7,9 or higher)
One of the above versions must be installed on your system. To see the installed version, run the following command in terminal:
[foc@rocky9 ~]$ python --version
Python 3.9.10
Step-2: Download gcloud cli archive
Then download the google-cloud-cli 64 bit package to the system:
[foc@rocky9 ~]$ curl -O https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/downloads/google-cloud-cli-395.0.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 99.8M 100 99.8M 0 0 1985k 0 0:00:51 0:00:51 --:--:-- 1878k
Note: Below are the links for different architectural systems.
To download the 32-bit package:https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/downloads/google-cloud-cli-395.0.0-linux-x86.tar.gz
For ARM systems: https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/downloads/google-cloud-cli-395.0.0-linux-arm.tar.gz
Package downloaded:
[foc@rocky9 ~]$ ls google-cloud-cli-395.0.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
Unzip the compressed file:
[foc@rocky9 ~]$ tar -xf google-cloud-cli-395.0.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
Step-3: Install and setup gcloud CLI (Interactive)
Run the script using the following command:
[foc@rocky9 ~]$ ./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh Welcome to the Google Cloud CLI! To help improve the quality of this product, we collect anonymized usage data and anonymized stacktraces when crashes are encountered; additional information is available at <https://cloud.google.com/sdk/usage-statistics>. This data is handled in accordance with our privacy policy <https://cloud.google.com/terms/cloud-privacy-notice>. You may choose to opt in this collection now (by choosing 'Y' at the below prompt), or at any time in the future by running the following command: gcloud config set disable_usage_reporting false Do you want to help improve the Google Cloud CLI (y/N)? N Your current Google Cloud CLI version is: 395.0.0 The latest available version is: 395.0.0 ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Components │ ├───────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┬──────────┤ │ Status │ Name │ ID │ Size │ ├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┼──────────┤ │ Not Installed │ App Engine Go Extensions │ app-engine-go │ 4.2 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Appctl │ appctl │ 21.0 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Artifact Registry Go Module Package Helper │ package-go-module │ < 1 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Bundled Python 3.9 │ bundled-python3-unix │ 62.2 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Cloud Bigtable Command Line Tool │ cbt │ 9.8 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Cloud Bigtable Emulator │ bigtable │ 6.0 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Cloud Datalab Command Line Tool │ datalab │ < 1 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Cloud Datastore Emulator │ cloud-datastore-emulator │ 34.9 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Cloud Firestore Emulator │ cloud-firestore-emulator │ 40.2 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Cloud Pub/Sub Emulator │ pubsub-emulator │ 60.7 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Cloud Run Proxy │ cloud-run-proxy │ 9.0 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Cloud SQL Proxy │ cloud_sql_proxy │ 7.8 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Cloud Spanner Emulator │ cloud-spanner-emulator │ 27.2 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Cloud Spanner Migration Tool │ harbourbridge │ 14.8 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Google Cloud Build Local Builder │ cloud-build-local │ 6.3 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Google Container Registry's Docker credential helper │ docker-credential-gcr │ 1.8 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Kustomize │ kustomize │ 4.3 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Minikube │ minikube │ 30.6 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Nomos CLI │ nomos │ 25.0 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ On-Demand Scanning API extraction helper │ local-extract │ 12.7 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Skaffold │ skaffold │ 19.2 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ Terraform Tools │ terraform-tools │ 50.5 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ anthos-auth │ anthos-auth │ 19.5 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ config-connector │ config-connector │ 54.0 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ gcloud Alpha Commands │ alpha │ < 1 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ gcloud Beta Commands │ beta │ < 1 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ gcloud app Java Extensions │ app-engine-java │ 51.3 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ gcloud app Python Extensions │ app-engine-python │ 7.8 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ gcloud app Python Extensions (Extra Libraries) │ app-engine-python-extras │ 26.4 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ kpt │ kpt │ 12.1 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ kubectl │ kubectl │ < 1 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ kubectl-oidc │ kubectl-oidc │ 19.5 MiB │ │ Not Installed │ pkg │ pkg │ │ │ Installed │ BigQuery Command Line Tool │ bq │ 1.6 MiB │ │ Installed │ Cloud Storage Command Line Tool │ gsutil │ 15.5 MiB │ │ Installed │ Google Cloud CLI Core Libraries │ core │ 24.1 MiB │ └───────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┴──────────┘ To install or remove components at your current SDK version [395.0.0], run: $ gcloud components install COMPONENT_ID $ gcloud components remove COMPONENT_ID To update your SDK installation to the latest version [395.0.0], run: $ gcloud components update Modify profile to update your $PATH and enable shell command completion? Do you want to continue (Y/n)? Y The Google Cloud SDK installer will now prompt you to update an rc file to bring the Google Cloud CLIs into your environment. Enter a path to an rc file to update, or leave blank to use [/home/foc/.bashrc]: Backing up [/home/foc/.bashrc] to [/home/foc/.bashrc.backup]. [/home/foc/.bashrc] has been updated. ==> Start a new shell for the changes to take effect.
- "Do you want to help improve the Google Cloud CLI (y/N)?" Answer "N" to the question.
- Continue by pressing the enter key in the question "Enter a path to an rc file to update".
To install components at your current SDK version, run:
[foc@rocky9 ~]$ ./google-cloud-sdk/bin/gcloud components install COMPONENT_ID
For remove:
[foc@rocky9 ~]$ ./google-cloud-sdk/bin/gcloud components remove COMPONENT_ID
To update your SDK installation to the latest version, run:
[foc@rocky9 ~]$ ./google-cloud-sdk/bin/gcloud components update
Installation is complete.
Initializing the gcloud cli
After installation of the gcloud CLI, you need to initialize it so that it will interact with your Google Cloud Project resources.
Running the gcloud init
command will perform many setup tasks for gcloud Cloud SDK. Next it will prompt you to log into your Google user account. Enter Y
to the prompt and enter your Google Cloud account:
[foc@rocky9 ~]$ ./google-cloud-sdk/bin/gcloud init
Note: When using Ubuntu, only type gcloud init in the terminal.
Welcome! This command will take you through the configuration of gcloud. Your current configuration has been set to: [default] You can skip diagnostics next time by using the following flag: gcloud init --skip-diagnostics Network diagnostic detects and fixes local network connection issues. Checking network connection...done. Reachability Check passed. Network diagnostic passed (1/1 checks passed). You must log in to continue. Would you like to log in (Y/n)? Y Go to the following link in your browser: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?...code_challenge_method=S256 Enter authorization code:
- Go to the link starting with https in your browser.
- To continue with the Google Cloud SDK implementation, sign in on the page that opens.
- When asked "Google Cloud SDK wants to access your Google Account", answer "allow".
Copy the password on the screen:
Then paste the password in "Enter authorization code: ":
Enter authorization code: 4/0AdQt8qjURcP238EbvJTaq3cdt-UxdbuN2k-GWtbFyURPKkp7kEonRTTUJMpEQAvnFSG6LQ You are logged in as: [foc@gmail.com]. Pick cloud project to use: [1] barcode-fb0c4 [2] foc-42320 [3] Enter a project ID [4] Create a new project Please enter numeric choice or text value (must exactly match list item):
After this step, you can start a project, log in to a project.
Summary
In this tutorial we learned 2 different methods to install gcloud on different types of Linux environments. The gcloud is a command-line interface designed to interact with the Google Cloud Platform. You can use gcloud to perform lots of administrative tasks associated with the Google Cloud Platform from your local workstation (macOS, Windows, and Linux).
Some of the tasks that you can perform using gcloud CLI include:
- Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters
- Google Cloud SQL instances
- Google Compute Engine instances
- Google Cloud DNS
References
Google - Install the gcloud CLI