diff --git a/contrib/completions/bash/kubectl b/contrib/completions/bash/kubectl
index d9bc47c7729..c4a3963bd91 100644
--- a/contrib/completions/bash/kubectl
+++ b/contrib/completions/bash/kubectl
@@ -285,7 +285,11 @@ _kubectl_create()
     flags_completion=()
 
     flags+=("--filename=")
+    flags_with_completion+=("--filename")
+    flags_completion+=("_filedir '@(json|yaml|yml)'")
     two_word_flags+=("-f")
+    flags_with_completion+=("-f")
+    flags_completion+=("_filedir '@(json|yaml|yml)'")
     flags+=("--help")
     flags+=("-h")
 
@@ -304,7 +308,11 @@ _kubectl_update()
     flags_completion=()
 
     flags+=("--filename=")
+    flags_with_completion+=("--filename")
+    flags_completion+=("_filedir '@(json|yaml|yml)'")
     two_word_flags+=("-f")
+    flags_with_completion+=("-f")
+    flags_completion+=("_filedir '@(json|yaml|yml)'")
     flags+=("--help")
     flags+=("-h")
     flags+=("--patch=")
@@ -325,7 +333,11 @@ _kubectl_delete()
 
     flags+=("--all")
     flags+=("--filename=")
+    flags_with_completion+=("--filename")
+    flags_completion+=("_filedir '@(json|yaml|yml)'")
     two_word_flags+=("-f")
+    flags_with_completion+=("-f")
+    flags_completion+=("_filedir '@(json|yaml|yml)'")
     flags+=("--help")
     flags+=("-h")
     flags+=("--selector=")
@@ -526,7 +538,11 @@ _kubectl_stop()
 
     flags+=("--all")
     flags+=("--filename=")
+    flags_with_completion+=("--filename")
+    flags_completion+=("_filedir '@(json|yaml|yml)'")
     two_word_flags+=("-f")
+    flags_with_completion+=("-f")
+    flags_completion+=("_filedir '@(json|yaml|yml)'")
     flags+=("--help")
     flags+=("-h")
     flags+=("--selector=")
diff --git a/pkg/kubectl/bash_comp_utils.go b/pkg/kubectl/bash_comp_utils.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..55e5b86e839
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkg/kubectl/bash_comp_utils.go
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2015 Google Inc. All rights reserved.
+
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+*/
+
+// A set of common functions needed by cmd/kubectl and pkg/kubectl packages.
+package kubectl
+
+import (
+	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
+	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
+	"github.com/spf13/pflag"
+)
+
+func AddJsonFilenameFlag(cmd *cobra.Command, value *util.StringList, usage string) {
+	annotations := []string{"json", "yaml", "yml"}
+	annotation := make(map[string][]string)
+	annotation[cobra.BashCompFilenameExt] = annotations
+
+	flag := &pflag.Flag{
+		Name:        "filename",
+		Shorthand:   "f",
+		Usage:       usage,
+		Value:       value,
+		DefValue:    value.String(),
+		Annotations: annotation,
+	}
+	cmd.Flags().AddFlag(flag)
+}
diff --git a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/create.go b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/create.go
index b0e731d1870..a0ff1d679d3 100644
--- a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/create.go
+++ b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/create.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 
+	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl"
 	cmdutil "github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/cmd/util"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/resource"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
@@ -50,7 +51,10 @@ func NewCmdCreate(f *cmdutil.Factory, out io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
 			cmdutil.CheckErr(RunCreate(f, out, filenames))
 		},
 	}
-	cmd.Flags().VarP(&filenames, "filename", "f", "Filename, directory, or URL to file to use to create the resource")
+
+	usage := "Filename, directory, or URL to file to use to create the resource"
+	kubectl.AddJsonFilenameFlag(cmd, &filenames, usage)
+
 	return cmd
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/delete.go b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/delete.go
index f660521909b..f5a2ddf3601 100644
--- a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/delete.go
+++ b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/delete.go
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/errors"
+	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl"
 	cmdutil "github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/cmd/util"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/resource"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
@@ -67,7 +68,8 @@ func NewCmdDelete(f *cmdutil.Factory, out io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
 			cmdutil.CheckErr(err)
 		},
 	}
-	cmd.Flags().VarP(&filenames, "filename", "f", "Filename, directory, or URL to a file containing the resource to delete")
+	usage := "Filename, directory, or URL to a file containing the resource to delete"
+	kubectl.AddJsonFilenameFlag(cmd, &filenames, usage)
 	cmd.Flags().StringP("selector", "l", "", "Selector (label query) to filter on")
 	cmd.Flags().Bool("all", false, "[-all] to select all the specified resources")
 	return cmd
diff --git a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/stop.go b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/stop.go
index 40dcc460e28..f361b9ef8f2 100644
--- a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/stop.go
+++ b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/stop.go
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 
+	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl"
 	cmdutil "github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/cmd/util"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/resource"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
@@ -79,7 +80,8 @@ func NewCmdStop(f *cmdutil.Factory, out io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
 			})
 		},
 	}
-	cmd.Flags().VarP(&flags.Filenames, "filename", "f", "Filename, directory, or URL to file of resource(s) to be stopped")
+	usage := "Filename, directory, or URL to file of resource(s) to be stopped"
+	kubectl.AddJsonFilenameFlag(cmd, &flags.Filenames, usage)
 	cmd.Flags().StringP("selector", "l", "", "Selector (label query) to filter on")
 	cmd.Flags().Bool("all", false, "[-all] to select all the specified resources")
 	return cmd
diff --git a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/update.go b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/update.go
index fd08b2d7ad0..08672ebaf37 100644
--- a/pkg/kubectl/cmd/update.go
+++ b/pkg/kubectl/cmd/update.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 
+	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl"
 	cmdutil "github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/cmd/util"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubectl/resource"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
@@ -53,7 +54,8 @@ func NewCmdUpdate(f *cmdutil.Factory, out io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
 			cmdutil.CheckErr(err)
 		},
 	}
-	cmd.Flags().VarP(&filenames, "filename", "f", "Filename, directory, or URL to file to use to update the resource.")
+	usage := "Filename, directory, or URL to file to use to update the resource."
+	kubectl.AddJsonFilenameFlag(cmd, &filenames, usage)
 	cmd.Flags().String("patch", "", "A JSON document to override the existing resource. The resource is downloaded, patched with the JSON, then updated.")
 	return cmd
 }