DPF CLI - dpfctl

dpfctl is a command-line tool designed to visualize, debug, and troubleshoot DPU resources in Kubernetes.
It simplifies debugging by extracting and presenting resource conditions in a structured, human-readable format.

It helps during provisioning and debugging of DPF by providing real-time visibility into resource states, conditions, and relationships.
For example, during DPU provisioning you can quickly identify which resources are ready, which are failing, and understand the dependency chain between components.

How to Run

There are 2 ways to run dpfctl:

• Install: You can download & run dpfctl locally on your machine

• Execute Inside Kubernetes Pod: With this way you can ensure that you are using the correct version of dpfctl that is compatible with the DPF Operator

Available Commands

Install

To download the latest version of dpfctl, you can find the latest version on NGC doca/dpfctl.

There are 3 different versions available for different architectures:

• dpfctl-linux-amd64

• dpfctl-linux-arm64

• dpfctl-darwin-arm64

You can also download it directly from the command line (in this example we are using dpfctl-linux-amd64 with version v26.4.0):

curl -L -o /usr/local/bin/dpfctl https://api.ngc.nvidia.com/v2/resources/nvidia/doca/dpfctl/versions/v26.4.0/files/dpfctl-linux-amd64
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/dpfctl

Execute Inside Kubernetes Pod

To execute dpfctl from the running container:

kubectl -n dpf-operator-system exec deploy/dpf-operator-controller-manager -- /dpfctl describe all

Creating a Shell Alias

For convenience, you can create a shell alias to simplify your commands:

alias dpfctl="kubectl -n dpf-operator-system exec deploy/dpf-operator-controller-manager -- /dpfctl "

If you want to use watch according to man watch:

If the last character of the alias value is a blank, then the next command word following the alias is also checked for alias expansion.

To use watch with custom arguments (like -n1 for interval), add both aliases to your shell's configuration file (e.g., .bashrc, .zshrc, or .profile):

# Add to your shell's configuration file
alias dpfctl="kubectl -n dpf-operator-system exec deploy/dpf-operator-controller-manager -- /dpfctl "
alias watch="watch -c "

Kubeconfig

By default, dpfctl uses the kubeconfig file at ~/.kube/config. To use a different kubeconfig file, specify it with --kubeconfig, which is part of the global flags:

dpfctl describe all --kubeconfig /path/to/kubeconfig

Alternatively, set the KUBECONFIG environment variable:

export KUBECONFIG=/path/to/kubeconfig
dpfctl describe all

or

KUBECONFIG=/path/to/kubeconfig dpfctl describe all

Shell Completion

dpfctl supports shell completion for commands, flags, and flag values (e.g. resource kinds for --show-resources, --show-conditions, and --expand-resources).

Bash

Bash completion requires the bash-completion package (v2+) and Bash 4.1+.

# Add to ~/.bashrc
command -v dpfctl >/dev/null && source <(dpfctl completion bash)

Zsh

Zsh completion requires compinit to be enabled. If it is not already, add the following to your ~/.zshrc before the completion source line:

autoload -Uz compinit && compinit

Then add:

# Add to ~/.zshrc
command -v dpfctl >/dev/null && source <(dpfctl completion zsh)

Fish

dpfctl completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/dpfctl.fish

PowerShell

# Add to your PowerShell profile
dpfctl completion powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

Last updated: June 24, 2026