<p>Is there a way to run <code>kubectl diff -f .</code> in that way so that output shows only file names that would be changed with <code>kubectl apply -f .</code> and not every single diff line...?</p>

<p>You can use, something as below, here <code>KUBECTL_EXTERNAL_DIFF</code> is an env variable, to use a custom <code>diff</code> program with custom flags. So, basically, here we are telling <code>kubectl</code> to use <code>diff -qr</code> for displaying the difference. By default, kubectl use <code>diff -u -N</code>.</p>
<pre><code>KUBECTL_EXTERNAL_DIFF='diff -qr' kubectl diff -f .
</code></pre>
