Terminating stuck namespaces using kubectl

Description#

After installing a helm deployment or testing something and you removed everything, sometimes we faced a stuck namespace, so how to kill it?

Terminating stuck namespace#

Set the namespace name, then run the command below:

NAMESPACE=stuck-namespace

kubectl get namespace "$NAMESPACE" -o json \
  | tr -d "\n" | sed "s/\"finalizers\": \[[^]]\+\]/\"finalizers\": []/" \
  | kubectl replace --raw "/api/v1/namespaces/$NAMESPACE/finalize" -f -

Or, if you have jq installed:

kubectl get namespace "$NAMESPACE" -o json \
  | jq '.spec.finalizers = []' \
  | kubectl replace --raw "/api/v1/namespaces/$NAMESPACE/finalize" -f -

Tip: A namespace usually gets stuck because an API service or a custom resource inside it can no longer be cleaned up. kubectl get namespace "$NAMESPACE" -o yaml shows the reason under status.conditions.