title: kubectl exec into a container without using the random guid at the end of the pod name
body: <p>To exec into a container in a pod, I use the following two commands (note the <code>template</code> flag in the first command trims the output to print just the name of the pods):</p>
  <pre><code>$ kubectl get pods --template '{{range .items}}{{.metadata.name}}{{&quot;\n&quot;}}{{end}}'
  app-api-6421cdf4fd-x9tbk
  app-worker-432f86f54-fknxw
  app-frontend-87dd65d49c-6b4mn
  app-rabbit-413632c874-s2ptw
  
  $ kubectl exec -it app-api-6421cdf4fd-x9tbk -- bash
  </code></pre>
  <p>It would be nice to exec into the container without having to discover the random guid at the end of the pod name every single time. How can I do this?</p>