Red Hat Summit Red Hat SummitSupportConsoleDevelopersStart a trialContact

Chapter 6. opm CLI

6.1. About opm
Copy link

The opm CLI tool is provided by the Operator Framework for use with the Operator bundle format. This tool allows you to create and maintain catalogs of Operators from a list of bundles, called an index, that are similar to software repositories. The result is a container image, called an index image, which can be stored in a container registry and then installed on a cluster.

An index contains a database of pointers to Operator manifest content that can be queried through an included API that is served when the container image is run. On OpenShift Container Platform, Operator Lifecycle Manager (OLM) can use the index image as a catalog by referencing it in a CatalogSource object, which polls the image at regular intervals to enable frequent updates to installed Operators on the cluster.

Additional resources

6.2. Installing opm
Copy link

You can install the opm CLI tool on your Linux, macOS, or Windows workstation.

Prerequisites

  • For Linux, you must provide the following packages. RHEL 8 meets these requirements:

    • podman version 1.9.3+ (version 2.0+ recommended)
    • glibc version 2.28+

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the OpenShift mirror site and download the latest version of the tarball that matches your operating system.

  2. Unpack the archive.

    • For Linux or macOS: 

      $ tar xvf <file>
      Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap
    • For Windows, unzip the archive with a ZIP program.

  3. Place the file anywhere in your PATH.

    • For Linux or macOS:

      1. Check your PATH: 

        $ echo $PATH
        Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

      2. Move the file. For example: 

        $ sudo mv ./opm /usr/local/bin/
        Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    • For Windows:

      1. Check your PATH: 

        C:\> path
        Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

      2. Move the file: 

        C:\> move opm.exe <directory>
        Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

Verification

  • After you install the opm CLI, verify that it is available: 

    $ opm version
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    Example output

    Version: version.Version{OpmVersion:"v1.15.4-2-g6183dbb3", GitCommit:"6183dbb3567397e759f25752011834f86f47a3ea", BuildDate:"2021-02-13T04:16:08Z", GoOs:"linux", GoArch:"amd64"}
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

Back to top
Red Hat logoGithubredditYoutubeTwitter

Learn

Try, buy, & sell

Communities

About Red Hat Documentation

We help Red Hat users innovate and achieve their goals with our products and services with content they can trust. Explore our recent updates.

Making open source more inclusive

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. For more details, see the Red Hat Blog.

About Red Hat

We deliver hardened solutions that make it easier for enterprises to work across platforms and environments, from the core datacenter to the network edge.

Theme

© 2025 Red Hat