Quickstart for macOS

This page shows how to install the Google Cloud SDK, initialize it, and run core gcloud commands from the command-line.

Note: If you are behind a proxy/firewall, see the proxy settings page for more information on installation.

Before you begin

1. Create a Google Cloud Platform project, if you don't have one already.

2. Make sure that Python 2.7 is installed on your system:

   python -V
   

   Note: As of Cloud SDK version 272.0.0, the gcloud CLI has beta support for running using a Python 3.5+ interpreter. Users interested in using Python 3 should switch now. Run gcloud topic startup for exclusions and more information on configuring your Python interpreter.

3. Download the archive file best suited to your operating system. Most machines will run the 64-bit package.

   Platform	Package	Size	SHA256 Checksum
   macOS 64-bit (x86_64)	google-cloud-sdk-272.0.0-darwin-x86_64.tar.gz	22.7 MB	63079aab3bd6714a1d819fdde798f30e2ac306d13b541516ac2b5b660f69cc9f
   macOS 32-bit (x86)	google-cloud-sdk-272.0.0-darwin-x86.tar.gz	22.7 MB	90d368e827c8496597c60d34c2b256e6931d5dcab4a035ce7013fa90c89241b8

4. Extract the archive to any location on your file system; preferably, your home directory. On macOS, this can be achieved by opening the downloaded .tar.gz archive file in the preferred location.

5. Optional: Use the install script to add Cloud SDK tools to your path. You will also be able to opt-in to command-completion for your bash shell and usage statistics collection during the installation process. Run the script using this command:

   ./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh
   

   Restart your terminal for the changes to take effect.

   Alternatively, you can call Cloud SDK after extracting the downloaded archive by invoking its executables via the full path.

Initialize the SDK

Use the gcloud init command to perform several common SDK setup tasks. These include authorizing the SDK tools to access Google Cloud Platform using your user account credentials and setting up the default SDK configuration.

To initialize the SDK:

1. Run the following at a command prompt:

   gcloud init
   

   Note: If you get an error related to the gcloud command not being found, refer to step 5 in the section above.

   Note: To prevent the command from launching a web browser, use gcloud init --console-only instead. To authorize without a web browser and non-interactively, create a service account with the appropriate scopes using the Google Cloud Platform Console and use gcloud auth activate-service-account with the corresponding JSON key file.

2. Accept the option to log in using your Google user account:

   To continue, you must log in. Would you like to log in (Y/n)? Y
   

3. In your browser, log in to your Google user account when prompted and click Allow to grant permission to access Google Cloud Platform resources.

4. At the command prompt, select a Cloud Platform project from the list of those where you have Owner, Editor or Viewer permissions:

   Pick cloud project to use:
    [1] [my-project-1]
    [2] [my-project-2]
    ...
    Please enter your numeric choice:
   

   If you only have one project, gcloud init selects it for you.

5. If you have the Google Compute Engine API enabled, gcloud init allows you to choose a default Compute Engine zone:

   Which compute zone would you like to use as project default?
    [1] [asia-east1-a]
    [2] [asia-east1-b]
    ...
    [14] Do not use default zone
    Please enter your numeric choice:
   

   gcloud init confirms that you have complete the setup steps successfully:

   gcloud has now been configured!
   You can use [gcloud config] to change more gcloud settings.
   
   Your active configuration is: [default]
   

Run core gcloud commands

Run these gcloud commands to view information about your SDK installation:

1. To list accounts whose credentials are stored on the local system:

   gcloud auth list
   

   gcloud displays a list of credentialed accounts:

          Credentialed Accounts
   ACTIVE             ACCOUNT
   *                  [e-mail]
                      [e-mail]
   

2. To list the properties in your active SDK configuration:

   gcloud config list
   

   gcloud displays the list of properties:

   [core]
   account = [e-mail]
   disable_usage_reporting = False
   project = example-project
   

3. To view information about your Cloud SDK installation and the active SDK configuration:

   gcloud info
   

   gcloud displays a summary of information about your Cloud SDK installation. This includes information about your system, the installed SDK components, the active user account and current project, and the properties in the active SDK configuration.

4. To view information about gcloud commands and other topics from the command line:

   gcloud help
   

   For example, to view the help for gcloud compute instances create:

   gcloud help compute instances create
   

   gcloud displays a help topic that contains a description of the command, a list of command flags and arguments, and examples of how to use it.

What's next

• Read the gcloud tool guide for an overview of the gcloud command-line tool, including a quick introduction to key concepts, command conventions, and helpful tips.
• Read the gcloud reference guide for detailed pages on each gcloud command, including descriptions, flags, and examples, that you can use to perform a variety of tasks on Google Cloud Platform.
• Install additional components such as the App Engine emulators or kubectl using the Cloud SDK component manager.