AWS Command Line Interface (CLI)
The AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) is a unified tool within Amazon Web Services that provides a consistent method to interact with and programmatically access AWS services from the command line.
Key points
- Downloaded and configured locally to programmatically access the power of AWS services.
- Automates AWS services from the command line and through scripts.
- Provides a consistent, unified method to interact with AWS services across the board.
- Used together with access keys to gain programmatic access to AWS resources through the AWS CLI or the AWS API.
- Access keys are long-term credentials tied to an IAM user (or the root user), not an IAM role, group, or policy.
- Used as one of the ways to trigger builds in AWS CodeBuild and to send trace data in AWS X-Ray.
- Distinct from the AWS Management Console, a browser-based graphical interface better suited to manual, one-off tasks than automation or scripting.
- AWS CLI v2 is the current major version and the one AWS recommends installing; it bundles its own embedded Python (no separate install needed), adds interactive wizards and auto-prompt, supports signing in through AWS IAM Identity Center (Single Sign-On), and pages output through the OS default pager by default.
- v2 standardizes behavior that varied or was missing in v1: all timestamps are returned in ISO 8601 format, binary parameters are base64-encoded by default, and high-level
s3uploads use CRC64NVME checksums by default (v2.23.0+).