.TH "GCLOUD_COMPUTE_INSTANCES_DESCRIBE" 1



.SH "NAME"
.HP
gcloud compute instances describe \- describe a virtual machine instance



.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP
\f5gcloud compute instances describe\fR \fIINSTANCE_NAME\fR [\fB\-\-zone\fR=\fIZONE\fR] [\fIGCLOUD_WIDE_FLAG\ ...\fR]



.SH "DESCRIPTION"

\fBgcloud compute instances describe\fR displays all data associated with a
Compute Engine virtual machine instance.

It's possible to limit the the scope of the description by using the
\'\-\-format' flag. For details, see Filtering and formatting fun with gcloud
(https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gcp/filtering\-and\-formatting\-fun\-with).



.SH "EXAMPLES"

To describe an instance named \f5\fItest\-instance\fR\fR, run:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud compute instances describe test\-instance
.RE

To output only a set of fields from the available information, specify it using
the '\-\-format' flag:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud compute instances describe test\-instance \e
    \-\-format="yaml(name,status,disks)"
.RE



.SH "POSITIONAL ARGUMENTS"

.RS 2m
.TP 2m
\fIINSTANCE_NAME\fR

Name of the instance to describe. For details on valid instance names, refer to
the criteria documented under the field 'name' at:
https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/reference/rest/v1/instances


.RE
.sp

.SH "FLAGS"

.RS 2m
.TP 2m
\fB\-\-zone\fR=\fIZONE\fR

Zone of the instance to describe. If not specified, you might be prompted to
select a zone (interactive mode only). \f5gcloud\fR attempts to identify the
appropriate zone by searching for resources in your currently active project. If
the zone cannot be determined, \f5gcloud\fR prompts you for a selection with all
available Google Cloud Platform zones.

To avoid prompting when this flag is omitted, the user can set the
\f5\fIcompute/zone\fR\fR property:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud config set compute/zone ZONE
.RE

A list of zones can be fetched by running:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud compute zones list
.RE

To unset the property, run:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud config unset compute/zone
.RE

Alternatively, the zone can be stored in the environment variable
\f5\fICLOUDSDK_COMPUTE_ZONE\fR\fR.


.RE
.sp

.SH "GCLOUD WIDE FLAGS"

These flags are available to all commands: \-\-access\-token\-file, \-\-account,
\-\-billing\-project, \-\-configuration, \-\-flags\-file, \-\-flatten,
\-\-format, \-\-help, \-\-impersonate\-service\-account, \-\-log\-http,
\-\-project, \-\-quiet, \-\-trace\-token, \-\-user\-output\-enabled,
\-\-verbosity.

Run \fB$ gcloud help\fR for details.



.SH "NOTES"

These variants are also available:

.RS 2m
$ gcloud alpha compute instances describe
.RE

.RS 2m
$ gcloud beta compute instances describe
.RE