AWS CLI

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My notes on AWS CLI.

Open Table of contents

What is AWS CLI?
Check the AWS CLI version
AWS CLI Configuration & Named Profiles
Using named profile
Change output format
References

What is AWS CLI?

A tool that enables to interact with AWS Services using commands in your command-line shell.
Direct access to the public APIs of AWS Services.
You can develop scripts to manage your resources.
It’s open source https://github.com/aws/aws-cli.
The latest version is AWS CLI v2.
Alternatively, you can also use the AWS CloudShell that is a browser-based, pre-authenticated shell. It can be launched directly from the AWS Management Console. This service is not available in all AWS regions.

Check the AWS CLI version

$ aws --version
aws-cli/2.7.32 Python/3.9.11 Darwin/19.6.0 exe/x86_64 prompt/off

AWS CLI Configuration & Named Profiles

The default location for the AWS CLI configuration is the .aws directory inside your operating system’s Home directory. For Windows OS it is %UserProfile% and for Unix-based systems, it is $HOME or ~ (tilde).
By default, the AWS CLI uses the default profile.
We can create and use additional named profiles by specifying the --profile option and assigning a name. Check the following example where it creates a new profile named admin.

$ aws configure --profile admin
AWS Access Key ID [None]: AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: je7MtGbClwBF/2Zp9Utk/h3yCo8nvbEXAMPLEKEY
Default region name [None]: us-east-1
Default output format [None]: text

Check this Named profiles for AWS CLI guide for more details.

Using named profile

Use --profile <profile-name> option to use a named profile.
Set AWS_PROFILE environment variable if you intend to execute multiple commands with the same named profile.

$ export AWS_PROFILE=admin

Change output format

Use --output <output-format> option to override the default format option set.
Supported format options are json, yaml, yaml-stream, text, and table.
Set AWS_DEFAULT_OUTPUT environment variable if you intend to execute multiple commands with the same output format.

$ export AWS_DEFAULT_OUTPUT=json

References

Getting Started Guide - https://aws.amazon.com/cli/
AWS CLI Installation Guide - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-install.html
AWS CLI Setup Guide - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-quickstart.html
AWS CLI Named Profiles - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-configure-profiles.html
List of AWS CLI Envrionment Variables - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-configure-envvars.html