gcloud topic startup

NAME
gcloud topic startup - supplementary help for gcloud startup options
DESCRIPTION
Choosing a Python Interpreter
The gcloud CLI runs under Python. Note that gcloud supports Python version 3.9-3.14. Certain Windows and Linux installs include a bundled Python interpreter depending on the package and architecture. Similarly, Intel-based Macs offer the option to install CPython as part of the main install script. Otherwise, you must have a Python interpreter available on your system. The gcloud CLI will attempt to locate an interpreter on your system PATH by looking for the following binaries:
  • python3
  • python

If you have a bundled Python installed, it will be preferred. To override this you will need to set the CLOUDSDK_PYTHON environment variable, see below.

Other Python tools shipped in the Google Cloud CLI do not support Python 3 and require Python 2.7.x, including:

  • dev_appserver
Bundled Python on Linux
Linux-based installs include a bundled Python installation on x86_64 architectures. This installation will be used by default. If you want to use a different Python installation, set the CLOUDSDK_PYTHON environment variable to the absolute path to your python interpreter.

If you have multiple Python interpreters available (including a bundled python) or if you don't have one on your PATH, you can specify which interpreter to use by setting the CLOUDSDK_PYTHON environment variable. For example: 

# 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

gsutil versions 5.0 and later support Python 3.9-3.13. 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 3.9-3.14. 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.

Configuring the Python Interpreter
While not typically necessary, you can pass interpreter level arguments to the Python running gcloud using the CLOUDSDK_PYTHON_ARGS environment variable.

A common use case for this (which has been special-cased) is to enable 'site packages'. This allows Python to pick up libraries from the system ( for example, those that may have been installed with pip). Site packages may be necessary if you require certain native libraries (as is the case if you work with service accounts using a legacy .p12 key, for example). To enable site packages, set CLOUDSDK_PYTHON_SITEPACKAGES=1. Note that enabling site packages may cause conflicts with gcloud packaged libraries, depending on what you have installed on your system.

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