Get a clean list of running pods in the current namespace

Using commands like oc get pods or kubectl get pods returns a list of pods with lots of extra information, including pods that have completed or in an error state, plus other information. For example:

# Get a list of all running pods in the current namespace (Kubernetes)
kubectl get pods

# Get a list of all running pods in the current namespace (OpenShift)
oc get pods


NAME                                         READY   STATUS         RESTARTS      AGE 
apply-route-restriction-28067995-h4dxn       0/3     Completed      0             6m21s 
apply-route-restriction-28067995-jdmwf       0/3     Completed      0             11m 
apply-route-restriction-28068000-ktpg2       1/3     ErrImagePull   0             81s 
apply-route-restriction-28068000-q7vmp       0/3     Completed      0             6m22s 
apply-route-restriction-28068005-tr69x       0/3     Completed      0             82s 
ste4site-db-ha-5gvs-0                        4/4     Running        1 (10d ago)   25d 
ste4site-db-ha-wfsc-0                        4/4     Running        0             25d 
ste4site-repo1-incr-28067280-26fdv           0/1     Completed      0             12h 
ste4stie-repo1-incr-28067760-bdcqm           0/1     Completed      0             4h6m 
ste4site-repo1-incr-28068000-82kw6           0/1     Completed      0             6m22s 
ste4site-web-app-dev-25-7jwbw                1/1     Running        0             29d
ste4site-web-svc-dev-40-trd9h                1/1     Running        0             5d17h
ste4site-web-svc-dev-41-deploy               0/1     Error          0             5d18h

This is great if you want an overview of the namespace state, but if you’re automating a task or prefer a cleaner look, you can reduce the amount of information in the pod list to something more readable and easier to use in a script.

Rather than filtering the output with grep, sed, or awk, there are command-line options in oc and kubectl to change the default output.

To see only running pods, use the option --field-selector=status.phase==Running. For example:

oc get pods --field-selector=status.phase==Running

To get a list of pods without the column headers, use --no-headers. or -o name. For example:

oc get pods --no-headers

To get a list of pods with only the pod names, use -o custom-columns=":metadata.name". For example:

oc get pods -o custom-columns=":metadata.name"

Combine them into one command like this:

oc get pods --no-headers -o custom-columns=":metadata.name" --field-selector=status.phase==Running