Using the User Flag

Using the User Flag to Keep an Audit Log

Overview

In minikube, all executed commands are logged to a local audit log in the minikube home directory (default: ~/.minikube/logs/audit.json). These commands are logged with additional information including the user that ran them, which by default is the OS user. However, there is a global flag --user that will set the user who ran the command in the audit log.

Prerequisites

  • minikube v1.17.1 or newer

What does the flag do?

Assuming the OS user is johndoe, running minikube start will add the following to the audit log:

  1. |---------------|--------------------------|-----------------------------|--------------|----------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|
  2. |    Command    |          Args            |           Profile           |     User     |    Version     |          Start Time           |           End Time            |
  3. |---------------|--------------------------|-----------------------------|--------------|----------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|
  4. | start         |                          | minikube                    | johndoe      | v1.21.0        | Tue, 15 Jun 2021 09:00:00 MST | Tue, 15 Jun 2021 09:01:00 MST |
  5. |---------------|--------------------------|-----------------------------|--------------|----------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|

As you can see, minikube pulled the OS user and listed them as the user for the command.

Running the same command with --user=mary appended to the command will add the following to the audit log:

  1. |---------------|--------------------------|-----------------------------|--------------|----------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|
  2. |    Command    |          Args            |           Profile           |     User     |    Version     |          Start Time           |           End Time            |
  3. |---------------|--------------------------|-----------------------------|--------------|----------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|
  4. | start         | --user=mary              | minikube                    | mary         | v1.21.0        | Tue, 15 Jun 2021 09:00:00 MST | Tue, 15 Jun 2021 09:01:00 MST |
  5. |---------------|--------------------------|-----------------------------|--------------|----------------|-------------------------------|-------------------------------|

Here you can see that passing --user=mary overwrote the OS user with mary as the user for the command.

Example use case

  • Embedded use of minikube by multiple users (IDEs, Plugins, etc.)
  • A machine shared by multiple users using the same home folder

How do I use minikube in a script?

If you are using minikube in a script or plugin it is recommeneded to add --user=your_script_name to all operations.

Example:

  1. minikube start --user=plugin_name
  2. minikube profile list --user=plugin_name
  3. minikube stop --user=plugin_name

Last modified June 21, 2021: add `How do I use minikube in a script` section (f60117a2c)