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. For more information on crcmod, install gsutil and see the help topic by using the command
gsutil help crc32c
.
Installing gsutil
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:
- Confirm that you have a supported version of Python. The Google Cloud CLI requires
Python 3.8 to 3.12. 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
. - Download one of the following:
Platform Package name Size SHA256 Checksum Linux 64-bit (x86_64)
google-cloud-cli-linux-x86_64.tar.gz 130.3 MB 29e19b666935c05f81862324fbbda3d798a49909606b45512f732ae642553759 Linux 64-bit (Arm)
google-cloud-cli-linux-arm.tar.gz 52.7 MB 36e3c4e47cec39a4cf0e85aa156f7c61f096db6b698d644a2ef4b48c4210f19d Linux 32-bit (x86)
google-cloud-cli-linux-x86.tar.gz 52.7 MB 87cec76678aa9fe8ee28846c4c9ba4413036620eec72db38856d6e24c49e338a To download the Linux archive file, run the following command:
curl -O https://dl.google.com/dl/cloudsdk/channels/rapid/downloads/google-cloud-cli-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
Refer to the table above and replace google-cloud-cli-linux-x86_64.tar.gz with the
*.tar.gz
package name that applies to your configuration. - To extract the contents of the file to your file system (preferably to
your home directory), run the following command:
tar -xf google-cloud-cli-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
Optional: To replace an existing installation, remove the existinggoogle-cloud-sdk
directory and then extract the archive to the same location. - 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, answerY
when prompted.
- To send anonymous usage statistics
to help improve the gcloud CLI, answer
- Open a new terminal so that the changes take effect.
- To initialize the gcloud CLI, run
gcloud init
: - Optional: Install additional components using the component manager.
./google-cloud-sdk/bin/gcloud init
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 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
andcurl
installed:sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg curl
- Import the Google Cloud public key.
For newer distributions (Debian 9+ or Ubuntu 18.04+) run the following command:
curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg
- For older distributions, 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 you can't get latest updates due to an expired key, obtain the latest apt-get.gpg key file.
- Add the gcloud CLI distribution URI as a package source.
- For newer distributions (Debian 9+ or Ubuntu 18.04+), 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
For older distributions that don'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
- For newer distributions (Debian 9+ or Ubuntu 18.04+), run the following command:
- Update and install the gcloud CLI:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli
For additionalapt-get
options, such as disabling prompts or dry runs, refer to theapt-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] https://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 | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg && apt-get update -y && apt-get install google-cloud-cli -y
For older base images that do not support thegpg --dearmor
command:RUN echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://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
- (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
- 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
Package contents
The gcloud CLI is available in package format for installation on
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, and 9; Fedora 33 and 34; and CentOS 7 and 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.
- Update DNF with gcloud CLI repository information.
The following sample command is for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9-compatible
installation, but make sure that you update the settings as needed for your
configuration:
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-el9-x86_64 enabled=1 gpgcheck=1 repo_gpgcheck=0 gpgkey=https://packages.cloud.google.com/yum/doc/rpm-package-key.gpg EOM
-
If you're installing on Fedora 34 or 35, install
libxcrypt-compat.x86_64
.sudo dnf install libxcrypt-compat.x86_64
- Install the gcloud CLI:
sudo dnf install google-cloud-cli
- (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
- 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 repository.
NOTE: For releases prior to 371.0.0, the package name is google-cloud-sdk
-
Confirm that you have a supported version of Python:
-
To check your current Python version, run
python3 -V
orpython -V
. Supported versions are Python 3.8 to 3.12. - The main install script offers to install CPython's Python 3.11.
- Otherwise, to install a supported Python version, please visit the Python.org Python Releases for macOS.
- If you have multiple Python interpreters installed on your machine, set the CLOUDSDK_PYTHON environment variable within your shell to point to the path of your preferred interpreter.
-
For more information on how to choose and configure your Python interpreter, see
gcloud topic startup
.
-
To check your current Python version, run
- Download one of the following:
-
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. -
(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 3.11.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. -
To initialize the gcloud CLI, run
gcloud init
: - Optional. Install additional components using the component manager.
Platform | Package | Size | SHA256 Checksum |
---|---|---|---|
macOS 64-bit
(x86_64) |
google-cloud-cli-darwin-x86_64.tar.gz | 52.8 MB | d9b947600e67350f86edd28b97bed7b98ab4f5076bea9b9b4b8717284a819d2a |
macOS 64-bit
(ARM64, Apple M1 silicon) |
google-cloud-cli-darwin-arm.tar.gz | 52.7 MB | 487296f593a775ebefd12e9f127e9b15244bb2ddca9ad750e0a7e7f29396038e |
macOS 32-bit
(x86) |
google-cloud-cli-darwin-x86.tar.gz | 51.5 MB | f2797a434a7cb4060ca86de2f0a3cda683e70d84bff20b643e90891c4005bfae |
./google-cloud-sdk/bin/gcloud init
-
The Google Cloud CLI works on Windows 8.1 and later and Windows Server 2012 and later.
-
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
-
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. -
Google Cloud CLI requires Python; supported versions are Python 3.8 to 3.12. By default, the Windows version of Google Cloud CLI comes bundled with Python 3. To use Google Cloud CLI 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 Google Cloud CLI 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. 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.- 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.
- If your installation is unsuccessful
due to the
find
command not being recognized, ensure yourPATH
environment variable is set to include the folder containingfind
. Usually, this isC:\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
.
Setting Up Credentials to Access Protected Data
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 to your Cloud Storage resources. To
establish access, run the command gcloud init
and follow the
instructions provided in the command line, which include logging into your user
account. Note that you likely already performed this setup if you followed the
installation steps above. If you ran gcloud init
previously,
when you run the command again you are asked if you want to re-initialize the
configuration or create a new one. For more information, see
Initialize the Google Cloud CLI.
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.
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":
-
use_client_certificate
: A flag controlling whether or not to use mTLS. -
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