Ubuntu / Debian Linux: Install gcutil Tool To Manage Google Compute Engine

gcutil is a command-line tool that you can use to manage your Google Compute Engine resources. It allows you to create and delete virtual machine instances, manage disks and firewall rules, and perform other tasks.

To install gcutil on an Ubuntu or Debian system, follow these steps:

1. Install the Google Cloud SDK. gcutil is part of the Google Cloud SDK, a set of tools for developing and managing applications on Google Cloud Platform. To install the Cloud SDK, follow the instructions in the Cloud SDK documentation.

2. Install the gcutil component. Once you have installed the Cloud SDK, you can install the gcutil component using the following command:

gcloud components install gcutil

This will install gcutil and make it available for use.

3. Authenticate with Google Cloud Platform. Before you can use gcutil, you need to authenticate with Google Cloud Platform. To do this, run the following command:

gcloud auth login

This will open a web browser window where you can sign in to your Google account and grant access to the Cloud SDK.

4. Set the default project. gcutil operates on resources in a specific Google Cloud Platform project. To set the default project, use the following command:

gcloud config set project <project_id>

Replace <project_id> with the ID of your project.

5. Run gcutil commands. Once you have installed and configured gcutil, you can use it to manage your Google Compute Engine resources. For example, to list your virtual machine instances, use the following command:

gcutil listinstances

For a full list of gcutil commands and options, refer to the gcutil documentation.