- NAME
-
- gcloud topic startup - supplementary help for gcloud startup options
- DESCRIPTION
- Choosing a Python Interpreter
-
The
gcloud
CLI runs under Python. Note thatgcloud
supports Python version 3.8-3.12. Certain Windows and Linux installs include a bundled Python interpreter depending on the package and architecture. Similarly, Intel-based Macs offer the option to install CPython as part of the main install script. Otherwise, you must have a Python interpreter available on your system. Thegcloud
CLI will attempt to locate an interpreter on your system PATH by looking for the following binaries:- python3
- python
If you have a bundled Python installed, it will be preferred. To override this you will need to set the
CLOUDSDK_PYTHON
environment variable, see below.Other Python tools shipped in the Google Cloud CLI do not support Python 3 and require Python 2.7.x, including:
-
dev_appserver
- Bundled Python on Linux
-
Linux-based installs include a bundled Python installation on x86_64
architectures. This installation will be used by default. If you want to use a
different Python installation, set the
CLOUDSDK_PYTHON
environment variable to the absolute path to your python interpreter.If you have multiple Python interpreters available (including a bundled python) or if you don't have one on your PATH, you can specify which interpreter to use by setting the
CLOUDSDK_PYTHON
environment variable. For example:# Use the python3 interpreter on your path
export CLOUDSDK_PYTHON=python3
# Use a python you have installed in a special location
export CLOUDSDK_PYTHON=/usr/local/my-custom-python-install/python
gsutil
versions 5.0 and later support Python 3.8-3.12. To use a different interpreter forgsutil
than for the other Python tools, set theCLOUDSDK_GSUTIL_PYTHON
environment variable to the interpreter that you want.bq
versions 2.0.99 and later support Python 3.8-3.12. To use a different interpreter forbq
than for the other Python tools, set theCLOUDSDK_BQ_PYTHON
environment variable to the interpreter that you want. - Configuring the Python Interpreter
-
While not typically necessary, you can pass interpreter level arguments to the
Python running
gcloud
using theCLOUDSDK_PYTHON_ARGS
environment variable.A common use case for this (which has been special-cased) is to enable 'site packages'. This allows Python to pick up libraries from the system ( for example, those that may have been installed with
pip
). Site packages may be necessary if you require certain native libraries (as is the case if you work with service accounts using a legacy.p12
key, for example). To enable site packages, setCLOUDSDK_PYTHON_SITEPACKAGES=1
. Note that enabling site packages may cause conflicts withgcloud
packaged libraries, depending on what you have installed on your system. - Setting Configurations and Properties
-
Your active configuration can also be set via the environment variable
CLOUDSDK_ACTIVE_CONFIG_NAME
. This allows you to specify a certain configuration in a given terminal session without changing the global default configuration.In addition to being able to set them via
gcloud config set
, eachgcloud
property has a corresponding environment variable. They take the form:CLOUDSDK_SECTION_PROPERTY
. For example, if you wanted to change your active project for just one terminal you could run:export CLOUDSDK_CORE_PROJECT=my-project
For more information, see
gcloud topic configurations
. - NOTES
-
These variants are also available:
gcloud alpha topic startup
gcloud beta topic startup
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Last updated 2024-02-06 UTC.