gcloud topic startup

NAME

gcloud topic startup - supplementary help for gcloud startup options

DESCRIPTION

This page provides supplementary help for configuring the gcloud command-line tool's startup behavior, including Python interpreter selection and environment variables.

CONFIGURING THE PYTHON INTERPRETER

The gcloud CLI requires a compatible Python version (3.10-3.14) to run. In most gcloud CLI installations, the gcloud installer manages the Python installation (version 3.13) for the user. Configuring the Python interpreter is only supported in specific scenarios described below.

When to Use CLOUDSDK_PYTHON environment variable

You can ONLY consider using the CLOUDSDK_PYTHON environment variable when you are on:

• Linux: Installing from a versioned archives (*.tar.gz*) on ARM or x86 architectures where Python is NOT included as part of the installation, gcloud will search for a compatible Python on your system PATH (looking for python3 then python). You can set the CLOUDSDK_PYTHON environment variable to the full path of your preferred compatible Python interpreter if the default one found on PATH is not desired.
• macOS: Available only for archived install and where the Python version matches the Python version managed by the gcloud CLI Tools install. Note that this is not available for Homebrew installations of gcloud CLI Tools.
• Windows: gcloud installer includes the required Python interpreter by default. Only use CLOUDSDK_PYTHON if you need to use a different Python installation.

Example Usages:

# Use the python3 interpreter on your path
export CLOUDSDK_PYTHON=python3

# Use a python you have installed in a special location
export CLOUDSDK_PYTHON=/usr/local/my-custom-python-install/python

Other Components

gsutil versions 5.0 and later support Python 3.10-3.13. To use a different interpreter for gsutil than for the other Python tools, set the CLOUDSDK_GSUTIL_PYTHON environment variable to the interpreter that you want.

bq versions 2.0.99 and later support Python 3.10-3.14. To use a different interpreter for bq than for the other Python tools, set the CLOUDSDK_BQ_PYTHON environment variable to the interpreter that you want.

SETTING CONFIGURATIONS AND PROPERTIES

Your active configuration can also be set via the environment variable CLOUDSDK_ACTIVE_CONFIG_NAME. This allows you to specify a certain configuration in a given terminal session without changing the global default configuration.

In addition to being able to set them via gcloud config set, each gcloud property has a corresponding environment variable. They take the form: CLOUDSDK_SECTION_PROPERTY. For example, if you wanted to change your active project for just one terminal you could run:

export CLOUDSDK_CORE_PROJECT=my-project

For more information, see gcloud topic configurations.

NOTES

These variants are also available:

gcloud alpha topic startup

gcloud beta topic startup