Introduction to rpk
The rpk
command line interface tool is designed to manage your entire Redpanda cluster, without the need to run a separate script for each function, as with Apache Kafka. The rpk
commands handle everything from configuring brokers to high-level general Redpanda tasks. For example, you can use rpk
to monitor your cluster’s health, perform tuning, and implement access control lists (ACLs) and other security features. You can also use rpk
to perform basic streaming tasks, such as creating topics, producing to topics, and consuming from topics.
After you install rpk
, you can use it to:
-
Manage Redpanda
-
Set up access control lists (ACLs) and other security features
-
Create topics, produce to topics, and consume from topics
See also: Install rpk
Specify command properties
You can specify rpk
command properties in the following ways:
-
Specify the appropriate flag on the command line.
-
Define the corresponding environment variables.
Environment variable settings only last for the duration of a shell session.
-
Edit the configuration file settings in the
rpk
section of theredpanda.yaml
file.Configuration file property settings stay the same for each shell session.
-
Edit the configuration file settings in the
rpk.yaml
file.Configuration file property settings stay the same for each shell session.
Command line flag settings take precedence over the corresponding environment variables, and environment variables take precedence over configuration file settings. If a required flag is not specified on the command line, Redpanda searches the environment variable. If the environment variable is not set, the value in the rpk.yaml
configuration file is used, if that file is available, otherwise the value in the redpanda.yaml
configuration file is used.
If you specify rpk command properties in the configuration files or as environment variables, you don’t need to specify them again on the command line.
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Common configuration properties
Every rpk
command supports a set of common configuration properties. You can set one or more options in an rpk
command by using the -X
flag:
rpk -X <config-option-1> -X <config-option-2>
Get a list of available options with -X list
:
rpk -X list
Or, get a detailed description about each option with -X help
:
rpk -X help
Some of the common configuration properties apply across all rpk
commands as defaults. These default properties have keys with names starting with defaults
, and they’re viewable in rpk -X list
and rpk -X help
. For more details, see rpk -X options
.