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AWS Documentation » AWS Command Line Interface » User Guide » Configuring the AWS CLI » Command Completion

Command Completion

On Unix-like systems, the AWS CLI includes a command-completion feature that enables you to use the TAB key to complete a partially typed command. On most systems, this feature is not automatically installed so you need to configure it manually.

To configure command completion, you must have two pieces of information: the name of the shell you are using and the location of the aws_completer script.

Amazon Linux

Command completion is automatically configured and enabled by default on Amazon EC2 instances that run Amazon Linux.

Identify Your Shell

If you are not sure which shell you are using, you can identify it with one of the following commands:

echo $SHELL – show the shell's installation directory. This will usually match the in-use shell, unless you launched a different shell after logging in. 

$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash

ps – show the processes running for the current user. The shell will be one of them. 

$ ps
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
 2148 pts/1    00:00:00 bash
 8756 pts/1    00:00:00 ps

Locate the AWS Completer

The location can vary depending on the installation method used.

Package Manager – programs such as pip, yum, brew and apt-get typically install the AWS completer (or a symlink to it) to a standard path location. In this case, the which command can locate the completer for you. 

$ which aws_completer
/usr/local/bin/aws_completer

Bundled Installer – if you used the bundled installer per the instructions in the previous section, the AWS completer is located in the bin subfolder of the installation directory. 

$ ls /usr/local/aws/bin
activate
activate.csh
activate.fish
activate_this.py
aws
aws.cmd
aws_completer
...

If all else fails, you can use find to search your entire file system for the AWS completer. 

$ find / -name aws_completer
/usr/local/aws/bin/aws_completer

Enable Command Completion

Run a command to enable command completion. The command that you use to enable completion depends on the shell that you are using. You can add the command to your shell's RC file to run it each time you open a new shell.

  • bash – use the built-in command complete. 

    $ complete -C '/usr/local/bin/aws_completer' aws

    Add the command to ~/.bashrc to run it each time you open a new shell. Your ~/.bash_profile should source ~/.bashrc to ensure that the command is run in login shells as well.

  • tcsh – complete for tcsh takes a word type and pattern to define the completion behavior. 

    > complete aws 'p/*/`aws_completer`/'

    Add the command to ~/.tschrc to run it each time you open a new shell.

  • zsh – source bin/aws_zsh_completer.sh. 

    % source /usr/local/bin/aws_zsh_completer.sh

    The AWS CLI uses bash compatibility auto completion (bashcompinit) for zsh support. For further details, refer to the top of aws_zsh_completer.sh.

    Add the command to ~/.zshrc to run it each time you open a new shell.

Test Command Completion

After enabling command completion, type in a partial command and press tab to see the available commands. 

$ aws sTAB
s3              ses             sqs             sts             swf
s3api           sns             storagegateway  support