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Follow these steps to install the Kubeseal CLI on Linux. Kubeseal converts Kubernetes Secrets into SealedSecrets, allowing safe storage in Git.

Prerequisites

  • A working Kubernetes cluster
  • kubectl configured and pointed at your cluster
Kubeseal v0.23.0 is used here as an example. Replace 0.23.0 with the version you need:
export KUBESEAL_VERSION="0.23.0"

Step 1: Download the Kubeseal Binary

Fetch the Linux AMD64 tarball from the official releases:
wget -O kubeseal-${KUBESEAL_VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz \
  "https://github.com/bitnami-labs/sealed-secrets/releases/download/v${KUBESEAL_VERSION}/kubeseal-${KUBESEAL_VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz"

Step 2: Extract the Executable

Unpack only the kubeseal binary from the archive:
tar -xvzf kubeseal-${KUBESEAL_VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz kubeseal

Step 3: Install to Your PATH

Move kubeseal into /usr/local/bin for system-wide access:
sudo install -m 755 kubeseal /usr/local/bin/kubeseal

Step 4: Verify Connectivity

Ensure Kubeseal can talk to the Sealed Secrets controller by listing pods in the kube-system namespace:
kubectl get pods -n kube-system
Example output:
NAME                                           READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
coredns-5d78c9869d-wm8sw                       1/1     Running   0          13h
etcd-minikube                                  1/1     Running   0          13h
kube-apiserver-minikube                        1/1     Running   0          13h
kube-controller-manager-minikube               1/1     Running   0          13h
kube-proxy-x6f9j                               1/1     Running   0          13h
kube-scheduler-minikube                        1/1     Running   0          13h
my-release-sealed-secrets-76b49fc554-wk717     1/1     Running   0          21s
storage-provisioner                            1/1     Running   1          13h
Seeing the my-release-sealed-secrets-* pod in Running state means Kubeseal is installed and ready to use.

References