Difference between kubectl and minikube-kubectl

Question

I'm using Mac OS for development environment.

If I install minikube, the kubectl will use the local cluster made by minikube as a default option. I found I can use kubectl command with minikube prefix - just like below:

$ minikube kubectl get pods

So I tried it, and kubectl download process began. So I can get that the kubectl in my Mac and the kubectl in minikube is not identical. But what does thie mean?

Answer 1

It's just a wrapper for kubectl, downloading it when not installed, otherwise executing the client.

See the command with '--help' below.

$ minikube kubectl --help

Run the kubernetes client, download it if necessary.

Usage: minikube kubectl [flags]

Flags: -h, --help help for kubectl

Global Flags:

[...]