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AWS Documentation » AWS Command Line Interface » User Guide » What Is the AWS Command Line Interface?

What Is the AWS Command Line Interface?

The AWS CLI is an open source tool built on top of the AWS SDK for Python (Boto) that provides commands for interacting with AWS services. With minimal configuration, you can start using all of the functionality provided by the AWS Management Console from your favorite terminal program.

  • Linux shells – Use common shell programs such as Bash, Zsh, and tsch to run commands in Linux, macOS, or Unix.

  • Windows command line – On Microsoft Windows, run commands in either PowerShell or the Windows Command Processor.

  • Remotely – Run commands on Amazon EC2 instances through a remote terminal such as PuTTY or SSH, or with Amazon EC2 systems manager.

The AWS CLI provides direct access to AWS services' public APIs. Explore a service's capabilities with the AWS CLI, and develop shell scripts to manage your resources. Or take what you've learned to develop programs in other languages with the AWS SDK.

In addition to the low level, API equivalent commands, the AWS CLI also provides customizations for several services. Customizations are higher level commands that simplify using a service with a complex API. For example, the aws s3 set of commands provide a familiar syntax for managing files in Amazon S3.

Example Upload a file to Amazon S3

aws s3 cp provides a shell-like copy command, and automatically performs a multipart upload to transfer large files quickly and resiliently. 

~$ aws s3 cp myvideo.mp4 s3://mybucket/

Performing the same task with the low level commands (available under aws s3api) would take a lot more effort.

Depending on your use case, you may want to use the AWS SDK, a toolkit, or the AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell.

You can view—and fork—the source code for the AWS CLI on GitHub in the aws-cli repository. Join the community of users on GitHub to provide feedback, request features, and submit your own contributions!

Using the Examples in this Guide

The examples in this guide are formatted with the following conventions:

  • Prompt – The command prompt is displayed as a dollar sign ('$'). Do not include the prompt when you type commands.

  • Directory – When commands must be executed from a specific directory, the directory name is shown before the prompt symbol.

  • User Input – Command text that you should enter at the command line is formatted as user input.

  • Replaceable Text – Variable text, including names of resources that you choose, or IDs generated by AWS services that you must include in commands, is formatted as replaceable text. In multiple line commands or commands where specific keyboard input is required, keyboard commands can also be shown as replaceable text.

  • Output – Output returned by AWS services is shown beneath user input without any special formatting.

For example, the following command includes user input, replaceable text, and output: 

$ aws configure
AWS Access Key ID [None]: AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY
Default region name [None]: us-west-2
Default output format [None]: ENTER

To use this example, type aws configure at the command line and press Enter. aws configure is the command. This command is interactive, so the AWS CLI outputs lines of texts, prompting you to enter additional information. Enter each of your access keys in turn and press Enter. Then, enter a region name in the format shown, press Enter, and press Enter a final time to skip the output format setting. The final Enter command is shown as replaceable text because there is no user input for that line. Otherwise, it would be implied.

The following example shows a simple non-interactive command with output from the service in JSON format: 

$ aws ec2 create-security-group --group-name my-sg --description "My security group"
{
    "GroupId": "sg-903004f8"
}

To use this example, enter the full text of the command (the highlighted text after the prompt) and press Enter. The name of the security group, my-sg is replaceable. In this case, you can use the group name as shown, but you will probably want to use a more descriptive name.

Note

Arguments that must be replaced (such as AWS Access Key ID), and those that should be replaced (such as group name), are both shown as replaceable text. If an argument must be replaced, it will be noted in the text describing the example.

The JSON document, including the curly braces, is output. If you configure your CLI to output in text or table format, the output will be formatted differently. JSON is the default output format.

About Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a collection of digital infrastructure services that developers can leverage when developing their applications. The services include computing, storage, database, and application synchronization (messaging and queuing). AWS uses a pay-as-you-go service model. You are charged only for the services that you—or your applications—use. Also, to make AWS more approachable as a platform for prototyping and experimentation, AWS offers a free usage tier. On this tier, services are free below a certain level of usage. For more information about AWS costs and the Free Tier, see Test-Driving AWS in the Free Usage Tier. To obtain an AWS account, open the AWS home page and then click Sign Up.