Google Cloud CLI (gcloud)

Command line interface for Google Cloud Platform.

Authentication & Configuration

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gcloud auth login	Login to Google Cloud
gcloud auth list	List authenticated accounts
gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID	Set default project
gcloud config set compute/region us-central1	Set default region
gcloud config set compute/zone us-central1-a	Set default zone
gcloud config list	View configuration
gcloud init	Initialize gcloud configuration

Compute Engine (VMs)

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gcloud compute instances list	List VM instances
gcloud compute instances create myvm --zone us-central1-a --machine-type e2-medium	Create VM instance
gcloud compute instances start myvm --zone us-central1-a	Start VM
gcloud compute instances stop myvm --zone us-central1-a	Stop VM
gcloud compute instances delete myvm --zone us-central1-a	Delete VM
gcloud compute instances describe myvm --zone us-central1-a	Get instance details
gcloud compute instances ssh myvm --zone us-central1-a	SSH into instance
gcloud compute instances add-metadata myvm --zone us-central1-a --metadata key=value	Add metadata

Cloud Storage

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gsutil ls	List buckets
gsutil mb gs://my-bucket	Create bucket
gsutil rb gs://my-bucket	Delete bucket
gsutil ls gs://my-bucket	List objects in bucket
gsutil cp file.txt gs://my-bucket/	Upload file
gsutil cp gs://my-bucket/file.txt .	Download file
gsutil cp -r dir/ gs://my-bucket/	Upload directory
gsutil rsync -r local-dir gs://my-bucket/	Sync directory
gsutil rm gs://my-bucket/file.txt	Delete object
gsutil du gs://my-bucket	Show bucket usage
gsutil versioning set on gs://my-bucket	Enable versioning

Cloud Functions

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gcloud functions list	List functions
gcloud functions deploy myfunc --runtime nodejs18 --trigger-http	Deploy function
gcloud functions describe myfunc	Get function details
gcloud functions delete myfunc	Delete function
gcloud functions logs read myfunc	Read function logs
gcloud functions call myfunc --data '{"key":"value"}'	Call function

App Engine

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gcloud app describe	Get app details
gcloud app versions list	List versions
gcloud app deploy	Deploy application
gcloud app browse	Open application in browser
gcloud app logs read	Read application logs

Cloud SQL

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gcloud sql instances list	List SQL instances
gcloud sql instances create mydb --tier db-f1-micro --region us-central1	Create instance
gcloud sql instances describe mydb	Get instance details
gcloud sql databases list --instance mydb	List databases
gcloud sql databases create mydb --instance mydb	Create database
gcloud sql users list --instance mydb	List users
gcloud sql users create --instance mydb --username myuser --password mypassword	Create user
gcloud sql instances delete mydb	Delete instance

Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gcloud container clusters list	List GKE clusters
gcloud container clusters create mycluster --num-nodes 3 --zone us-central1-a	Create cluster
gcloud container clusters get-credentials mycluster --zone us-central1-a	Get cluster credentials
gcloud container clusters resize mycluster --num-nodes 5 --zone us-central1-a	Resize cluster
gcloud container clusters delete mycluster --zone us-central1-a	Delete cluster
gcloud container node-pools list --cluster mycluster --zone us-central1-a	List node pools

Cloud Pub/Sub

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gcloud pubsub topics list	List topics
gcloud pubsub topics create mytopic	Create topic
gcloud pubsub topics publish mytopic --message "hello"	Publish message
gcloud pubsub subscriptions list	List subscriptions
gcloud pubsub subscriptions create mysub --topic mytopic	Create subscription

BigQuery

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
bq ls	List datasets
bq mk mydataset	Create dataset
bq query "SELECT * FROM \mydataset.table` LIMIT 10"`	Run query
bq show dataset.table	Show table details
bq load --source_format=CSV mydataset.table data.csv	Load data
bq extract mydataset.table gs://bucket/file.csv	Export data
bq rm -r mydataset	Delete dataset

Cloud IAM

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gcloud iam roles list	List IAM roles
gcloud projects get-iam-policy PROJECT_ID	Get IAM policy
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID --member=user:email@example.com --role=roles/editor	Add IAM binding
gcloud service-accounts list	List service accounts
gcloud iam service-accounts create my-sa --display-name "My Service Account"	Create service account
gcloud iam service-accounts keys create key.json --iam-account=my-sa@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com	Create service account key

Cloud Logging

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gcloud logging logs list	List logs
gcloud logging read "resource.type=gce_instance" --limit 10	Read log entries
gcloud logging tail "resource.type=gce_instance"	Tail logs

Cloud Monitoring

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gcloud monitoring time-series list	List time series
gcloud monitoring policies list	List alert policies
gcloud monitoring policies create my-policy.json	Create alert policy

VPC Networks

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gcloud compute networks list	List networks
gcloud compute networks create mynetwork --subnet-mode custom	Create network
gcloud compute networks subnets list	List subnets
gcloud compute networks subnets create mysubnet --network mynetwork --region us-central1 --range 10.0.0.0/24	Create subnet
gcloud compute firewall-rules list	List firewall rules
gcloud compute firewall-rules create myrule --allow tcp:80 --network mynetwork	Create firewall rule

Cloud Build

COMMAND	DESCRIPTION
gcloud builds list	List builds
gcloud builds submit --tag gcr.io/PROJECT_ID/myimage	Submit build
gcloud builds log BUILD_ID	View build logs
gcloud builds delete BUILD_ID	Delete build

Useful Queries

Get VM external IP

gcloud compute instances describe myvm --zone us-central1-a \
  --format="get(networkInterfaces[0].accessConfigs[0].natIP)"

List all running VMs

gcloud compute instances list --filter="status:RUNNING"

Get project ID

gcloud config get-value project

Get service account email

gcloud iam service-accounts list \
  --filter="displayName:My Service Account" \
  --format="value(email)"

List buckets by size

gsutil du -h gs://my-bucket | sort -rh

Download entire bucket

gsutil -m cp -r gs://my-bucket/* ./local-dir/

Get function URL

gcloud functions describe myfunc --format="value(httpsTrigger.url)"

Best Practices

• Use projects to organize resources
• Always specify zones and regions explicitly in scripts
• Use IAM roles with least privilege principle
• Enable logging and monitoring for all services
• Use Cloud KMS for encryption keys
• Use Cloud Asset Inventory for auditing
• Enable VPC Service Controls for sensitive data
• Use resource labels for cost tracking
• Set up budget alerts for cost management
• Use Cloud Build for CI/CD pipelines
• Regularly rotate service account keys

TIP

Use --format flag with gcloud commands to format output as table, json, yaml, or csv for easier parsing.