Install gsutil

This page describes the installation and setup of gsutil, a tool that enables you to access Cloud Storage from the command-line using HTTPS.

Simply installing gsutil gives you immediate read and/or write access to public data. Authenticating to the Cloud Storage service gives you read and/or write access to protected data that has been shared with you. Enabling billing gives you the ability to create and manage your own buckets.

System requirements

• The gsutil tool runs on Linux/Unix, Mac OS, and Windows (XP or later).

• gsutil versions 5.0 and up require Python 3.

• If you plan to use composite objects, you need to install compiled crcmod. On Windows, this is only available for 32-bit Python.

Warning: On some Linux distributions, another tool named gsutil, by GrandStream BudgeTone, is pre-installed. If you run this command instead of the Cloud Storage gsutil, it will likely print an error message similar to "Choose one of -b, -d, -e, or -r to do something". If this happens, you can either move the Cloud Storage version of gsutil to the front of your PATH environment variable, or you can specify the full path when running Cloud Storage gsutil (for example, /home/users/joan/gsutil/gsutil ls).

Installing gsutil

Note: If you have previously installed the Google Cloud CLI or if you are using a Google Compute Engine instance, then you already have gsutil installed.

The officially supported installation and update method for gsutil is as part of the Google Cloud CLI.

Installing gsutil as part of the Google Cloud CLI

Follow the instructions for your operating system to install gsutil as a part of the Google Cloud CLI:

Linux

1. Confirm that you have a supported version of Python. The Google Cloud CLI requires Python 3 (3.5 to 3.9). Note that the x86_64 Linux package includes a bundled Python interpreter that will be preferred by default. For information on how to choose and configure your Python interpreter, see gcloud topic startup.
2. Download one of the following:
   Note: To determine your OS version, run getconf LONG_BIT at the command line.

   Platform	Package	Size	SHA256 Checksum
   Linux 64-bit (x86_64)	google-cloud-cli-437.0.1-linux-x86_64.tar.gz	186.6 MB	a6aa8b52f70f5ff4e04e4177f68a409df6ffa71341e8b6d537649c0b933810f2
   Linux 64-bit (ARM)	google-cloud-cli-437.0.1-linux-arm.tar.gz	114.6 MB	da965e580282c8cf0c4cdba27cb50f61f475cdea8e21fedf62fd458c4a89b772
   Linux 32-bit (x86)	google-cloud-cli-437.0.1-linux-x86.tar.gz	115.9 MB	dda80eb74ac7bbc8d57ef1e0753221dca25886aeb87b72d357440290bae5166a

   Alternatively, to download the Linux 64-bit archive file, at the command line, run:

   curl -O https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/downloads/google-cloud-cli-437.0.1-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

   For the 64-bit ARM archive file, run:

   curl -O https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/downloads/google-cloud-cli-437.0.1-linux-arm.tar.gz

   For the 32-bit archive file, run:

   curl -O https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/downloads/google-cloud-cli-437.0.1-linux-x86.tar.gz

3. Extract the contents of the file to any location on your file system (preferably your Home directory). To replace an existing installation, remove the existing google-cloud-sdk directory and then extract the archive to the same location. The following sample shows the command for 32-bit Linux. If you're using another platform, adjust the command accordingly:

   tar -xf google-cloud-cli-437.0.1-linux-x86.tar.gz

4. Add the gcloud CLI to your path. Run the installation script from the root of the folder you extracted to using the following command:

   ./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh
   

   This can also be done non-interactively (for example, using a script) and by providing preferences as flags. To view the available flags, run:

   ./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh --help
   

   (Optional) To send anonymous usage statistics to help improve the gcloud CLI, answer Y when prompted.
   To add the gcloud CLI to your PATH and enable command completion, answer Y when prompted.
5. Open a new terminal so that the changes take effect.
6. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run gcloud init:

./google-cloud-sdk/bin/gcloud init

7. Optional. Install additional components using the component manager.

Debian/Ubuntu

Note: Depending on your setup, you can choose other installation methods:

• If you want gcloud and gsutil to automatically update to the latest version and you're running a modern Ubuntu release that uses the Snap Package Manager, you can install the Google Cloud CLI as a snap package.
• If you're using an instance on Compute Engine, the gcloud CLI is installed by default.

Package contents

The gcloud CLI is available in package format for installation on Debian and Ubuntu systems. This package contains the gcloud, gcloud alpha, gcloud beta, gsutil, and bq commands only. It doesn't include kubectl or the App Engine extensions required to deploy an application using gcloud commands. If you want these components, you must install them separately.

Before you begin

Before you install the gcloud CLI, make sure that your operating system meets the following requirements:

• It is an Ubuntu release that hasn't reached end-of-life or a Debian stable release that hasn't reached end-of-life
• It has recently updated its packages:

  sudo apt-get update

• It has apt-transport-https and curl installed:

  sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg curl sudo

Installation

1. Add the gcloud CLI distribution URI as a package source.
   • If your distribution supports the signed-by option, run the following command:

     echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list

   • If your distribution doesn't support the signed-by option, run the following command:

     echo "deb https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list

   Note: Make sure you don't have duplicate entries for the cloud-sdk repo in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list.
2. Import the Google Cloud public key.
   • If your distribution's apt-key command supports the --keyring argument, run the following command:

     curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg add -

   • If your distribution's apt-key command doesn't support the --keyring argument, run the following command:

     curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

   • If your distribution (Debian 11+ or Ubuntu 21.10+) doesn't support apt-key, run the following command:

     curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg

   • If you can't get latest updates due to an expired key, obtain the latest apt-get.gpg key file.

3. Update and install the gcloud CLI:

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli

   For additional apt-get options, such as disabling prompts or dry runs, refer to the apt-get man pages.

   Docker Tip: If installing the gcloud CLI inside a Docker image, use a single RUN step instead:

   RUN echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] http://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list && curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | apt-key --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg  add - && apt-get update -y && apt-get install google-cloud-cli -y
         

   If apt-key command is not supported:

   RUN echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] http://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list && curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | tee /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg && apt-get update -y && apt-get install google-cloud-sdk -y
         

4. (Optional) Install any of the following additional components:
   • google-cloud-cli
   • google-cloud-cli-anthos-auth
   • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-go
   • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-grpc
   • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java
   • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python
   • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python-extras
   • google-cloud-cli-bigtable-emulator
   • google-cloud-cli-cbt
   • google-cloud-cli-cloud-build-local
   • google-cloud-cli-cloud-run-proxy
   • google-cloud-cli-config-connector
   • google-cloud-cli-datastore-emulator
   • google-cloud-cli-firestore-emulator
   • google-cloud-cli-gke-gcloud-auth-plugin
   • google-cloud-cli-kpt
   • google-cloud-cli-kubectl-oidc
   • google-cloud-cli-local-extract
   • google-cloud-cli-minikube
   • google-cloud-cli-nomos
   • google-cloud-cli-pubsub-emulator
   • google-cloud-cli-skaffold
   • google-cloud-cli-spanner-emulator
   • google-cloud-cli-terraform-validator
   • google-cloud-cli-tests
   • kubectl

   For example, the google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java component can be installed as follows:

   sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java

5. Run gcloud init to get started:

   gcloud init

Downgrading gcloud CLI versions

To revert to a specific version of the gcloud CLI, where VERSION is of the form 123.0.0, run the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli=123.0.0-0

The ten most recent releases are always available in the repo.

NOTE: For releases prior to 371.0.0, the package name is google-cloud-sdk

Red Hat/Fedora/CentOS

Note: If you're using an instance on Compute Engine, the Google Cloud CLI is installed by default.

Package contents

The gcloud CLI is available in package format for installation on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, Fedora 33, Fedora 34, CentOS 7, and Centos 8 systems. This package contains the gcloud, gcloud alpha, gcloud beta, gsutil, and bq commands only. It doesn't include kubectl or the App Engine extensions required to deploy an application using gcloud commands, which can be installed separately as described later in this section.

Installation

1. Update DNF with gcloud CLI repo information. The following sample command is for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8-compatible installation. For a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7-compatible installation, replace el8 with el7 in the value for baseUrl.

   sudo tee -a /etc/yum.repos.d/google-cloud-sdk.repo << EOM
   [google-cloud-cli]
   name=Google Cloud CLI
   baseurl=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/repos/cloud-sdk-el8-x86_64
   enabled=1
   gpgcheck=1
   repo_gpgcheck=0
   gpgkey=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/rpm-package-key.gpg
   EOM
   

2. If you're installing on Fedora 34 or 35, install libxcrypt-compat.x86_64.

   sudo dnf install libxcrypt-compat.x86_64

3. Install the gcloud CLI:

   sudo dnf install google-cloud-cli

Note: If you haven't moved to dnf on your system, you can run these commands using yum instead.

You can also use dnf/yum options, such as disabling prompts or dry runs, with the provided commands.

4. (Optional) Install any of the following additional components:
   • google-cloud-cli
   • google-cloud-cli-anthos-auth
   • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-go
   • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-grpc
   • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java
   • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python
   • google-cloud-cli-app-engine-python-extras
   • google-cloud-cli-bigtable-emulator
   • google-cloud-cli-cbt
   • google-cloud-cli-cloud-build-local
   • google-cloud-cli-cloud-run-proxy
   • google-cloud-cli-config-connector
   • google-cloud-cli-datastore-emulator
   • google-cloud-cli-firestore-emulator
   • google-cloud-cli-gke-gcloud-auth-plugin
   • google-cloud-cli-kpt
   • google-cloud-cli-kubectl-oidc
   • google-cloud-cli-local-extract
   • google-cloud-cli-minikube
   • google-cloud-cli-nomos
   • google-cloud-cli-pubsub-emulator
   • google-cloud-cli-skaffold
   • google-cloud-cli-spanner-emulator
   • google-cloud-cli-terraform-validator
   • google-cloud-cli-tests
   • kubectl

   For example, the google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java component can be installed as follows:

   sudo dnf install google-cloud-cli-app-engine-java

5. Run gcloud init to get started:

   gcloud init

Downgrading gcloud CLI versions

If you'd like to revert to a specific version of the gcloud CLI, where VERSION is of the form 123.0.0, run: sudo dnf downgrade google-cloud-cli-VERSION The ten most recent releases will always be available in the repo. NOTE: For releases prior to 371.0.0, the package name is google-cloud-sdk

macOS

1. Confirm that you have a supported version of Python:
   • To check your current Python version, run python3 -V or python -V. Supported versions are Python 3 (3.5 to 3.9).
   • For Cloud SDK release version 352.0.0 and above, the main install script offers to install CPython's Python 3.7 on Intel-based Macs.
   • For more information on how to choose and configure your Python interpreter, refer to gcloud topic startup.
2. Download one of the following:
   Note: To determine your machine hardware name, run uname -m from a command line.

Platform	Package	Size	SHA256 Checksum
macOS 64-bit (x86_64)	google-cloud-cli-437.0.1-darwin-x86_64.tar.gz	120.9 MB	e0ef49eb6b8f32e5ebd601b34f14b6e45c2d23097cad25e9f6720ec8bcf4d6e5
macOS 64-bit (ARM64, Apple M1 silicon)	google-cloud-cli-437.0.1-darwin-arm.tar.gz	118.0 MB	691c50afb579fb014b0d3233adea123ac6193ca55ade941eeadecd24b1b4627f
macOS 32-bit (x86)	google-cloud-cli-437.0.1-darwin-x86.tar.gz	100.6 MB	4d6ed90c9dc272301c9e60716afa5ffb11052842a0a71756e7278ffb95830f27

1. 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.

   To replace an existing installation, remove the existing google-cloud-sdk directory and then extract the archive to the same location.

2. (Optional) Use the install script to add gcloud CLI tools to your PATH.You can also opt-in to command-completion for your shell, usage statistics collection, and install Python 3.7.

   Run the script (from the root of the folder you extracted in the last step) using this command:

   ./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh
   

   This can also be done non-interactively (for example, using a script) by providing preferences as flags. To describe the available flags, run:

   ./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh --help
   

   To run the install script with screen reader mode on:

   ./google-cloud-sdk/install.sh --screen-reader=true
   

   Open a new terminal so that the changes take effect.
3. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run gcloud init:

./google-cloud-sdk/bin/gcloud init

4. Optional. Install additional components using the component manager.

Windows

The Google Cloud CLI works on Windows 8.1 and later and Windows Server 2012 and later.

1. Download the Google Cloud CLI installer.

   Alternatively, open a PowerShell terminal and run the following PowerShell commands:

   (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile("https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/GoogleCloudSDKInstaller.exe", "$env:Temp\GoogleCloudSDKInstaller.exe")
   
   & $env:Temp\GoogleCloudSDKInstaller.exe
       

2. Launch the installer and follow the prompts. The installer is signed by Google LLC.

   If you're using a screen reader, check the Turn on screen reader mode checkbox. This option configures gcloud to use status trackers instead of unicode spinners, display progress as a percentage, and flatten tables. For more information, see the Accessibility features guide.

3. Cloud SDK requires Python; supported versions are Python 3 (3.5 to 3.9). By default, the Windows version of Cloud SDK comes bundled with Python 3. To use Cloud SDK, your operating system must be able to run a supported version of Python.

   The installer installs all necessary dependencies, including the needed Python version. While Cloud SDK installs and manages Python 3 by default, you can use an existing Python installation if necessary by unchecking the option to Install Bundled Python. See gcloud topic startup to learn how to use an existing Python installation.

4. After installation is complete, the installer gives you the option to create Start Menu and Desktop shortcuts, start the Google Cloud CLI shell, and configure the gcloud CLI. Make sure that you leave the options to start the shell and configure your installation selected. The installer starts a terminal window and runs the gcloud init command.

5. The default installation doesn't include the App Engine extensions required to deploy an application using gcloud commands. These components can be installed using the gcloud CLI component manager.

Troubleshooting tips:

• If your installation is unsuccessful due to the find command not being recognized, ensure your PATH environment variable is set to include the folder containing find. Usually, this is C:\WINDOWS\system32;.
• If you uninstalled the gcloud CLI, you must reboot your system before installing the gcloud CLI again.
• If unzipping fails, run the installer as an administrator.

Perform updates with the components update command: gcloud components update.

To learn how to use gsutil, see Quickstart: Using the gsutil Tool exercise, or run gsutil help.

Setting Up Credentials to Access Protected Data

Installing gsutil allows you to download and access publicly-accessible data, but in order to access protected data or write to a protected bucket, you need to set up credentials (authenticate). For example, if someone else has created a Cloud Storage account and uploaded data that is only accessible to you or other specific individuals, you must set up your credentials to the Cloud Storage service to be able to access this data.

When using gsutil as part of the Google Cloud CLI, OAuth2 is used to authenticate and authorize access. Note that you may have already performed the following steps if you performed Installing gsutil as part of the Google Cloud CLI above. If you ran gcloud init previously, you are asked if you want to re-initialize the configuration or create a new one.

1. Open a command prompt instance.

2. Run gcloud init at the command prompt.

   You receive the following output:

   Welcome! This command will take you through the configuration of gcloud.
    
   Your current configuration has been set to: [default]
    
   To continue, you must login. Would you like to login (Y/n)?
   

3. Type "Y" and press enter to login.

   • The command prints a URL and tries to open a browser window to request access to your project. If a browser window can be opened, you receive the following output:

     Your browser has been opened to visit:
      
     https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2F...
     

     Go to the next step.

   • If you are working on a local machine and your browser doesn't automatically load the URL, retry the gcloud init command with the --console-only flag:

     gcloud init --console-only
     

     If you use this command, or if the gcloud CLI detects that a browser can not be opened (such as if you are working on a remote machine), you receive the following output:

     Go to the following link in your browser:
      
     https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?redirect_uri=urn%3Aietf%3Awg%3A...
      
     Enter verification code:
     

     Open a browser and navigate to the URL provided.

4. If prompted, sign in with the Google account associated with your Cloud Storage data in the browser window.

5. Grant access.

   • If the browser window opened automatically, review the application permissions and click Accept when you are ready. The verification code is then automatically sent to the command line tool.

   • If you are working on a remote machine or used the --console-only flag, copy the verification code from the URL and paste it to the terminal command line, after Enter verification code:.

6. Choose the default project for this configuration.

   After setting up your credentials, the Google Cloud CLI prompts you for a default project for this configuration and provides a list of available projects. Select a project ID from the list.

   When you set this property, gsutil commands that require a project, such as gsutil mb, use the default project ID unless you override them with the -p flag or set the CLOUDSDK_CORE_PROJECT environment variable.

Note: If you have the Compute Engine API enabled, gcloud init may next ask you to set a project default zone and region. Your choice will not affect the performance of gsutil.

That's it. You're ready to access protected data. To see a listing of gsutil commands, type gsutil at the command prompt.

Troubleshooting

If you try to authenticate gsutil using the gcloud init command, but are still not able to access the expected buckets or objects, your system might have both the legacy, stand-alone version of gsutil and the Google Cloud CLI-bundled version of gsutil installed on it. Run the command gsutil version -l and check the value for using cloud sdk. If False, your system is using the stand-alone version of gsutil when you run commands. It's recommended that you remove the stand-alone version of gsutil from your system; however, you can alternatively authenticate using gsutil config -a or gsutil config -e.

Authenticate with HMAC

While OAuth 2.0 is the recommended way to authenticate gsutil, you can also use HMAC keys for your credentials. To authenticate with HMAC, use the following command:

gsutil config -a

Using this command takes you through an authentication process in which you are prompted for the access ID and secret associated with your HMAC key.

When authenticating with HMAC keys, you should disable credential passing from the Google Cloud CLI by using the command: gcloud config set pass_credentials_to_gsutil false.

Enable mTLS

You may also want to enable mutual TLS (mTLS). When mTLS is enabled on your device, your device attempts to connect to storage.mtls.googleapis.com. Before the connection is allowed, Cloud Storage verifies the certificate on your device.

Note: This feature only works when gsutil makes requests through the Cloud Storage JSON API.

The simplest way to to obtain a certificate is through Google Cloud CLI. You can set one manually in the .boto file by setting the following values under "Credentials":

1. use_client_certificate: A flag controlling whether or not to use mTLS.
2. cert_provider_command: A shell command that prints a certificate to stdout for gsutil to read.

Try it for yourself

If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how Cloud Storage performs in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

Try Cloud Storage free