aws: AWS from the Command Line (Quick Start)
A fast on-ramp to the AWS CLI v2: authenticate in a minute, confirm who you are, then tour the everyday commands for S3, EC2, IAM and CloudWatch Logs.
The AWS console is fine for clicking around, but real work happens at the command line — it is scriptable, fast, and the same everywhere. This is the quick start, not the deep dive: we get you authenticated with a minimal configure, confirm your identity, learn to read output as JSON, a table or plain text, and pluck a single field with a light touch of query. Then we tour the commands you will actually type all day — listing and copying S3 objects, syncing folders, inspecting and starting EC2 instances, looking up IAM users, and tailing live logs. By the end you can open the help for any service and drive it yourself.
What you'll build
- Authenticate the CLI with a minimal aws configure
- Confirm your identity with sts get-caller-identity
- Switch output between json, table and text
- Pluck a single field with a light --query
- Move objects and folders around S3
- Inspect, start and stop EC2 instances
- Look up IAM users and tail CloudWatch Logs
- Use profiles, region overrides and the built-in help
Contents
- Check what you are running
- Get authenticated
- Confirm who you are
- Read it as a table
- Read it as plain text
- Pluck one field
- List your buckets
- Look inside a bucket
- Copy a file up
- Sync a whole folder
- Make a bucket
- Remove a bucket
- Look at your EC2 instances
- Tame it with a query
- Stop an instance
- Start it again
- List IAM users
- Look up one user
- Find your log groups
- Tail logs live
- Override the region
- Switch accounts with profiles
- See your effective settings
- Help is always there
- You can drive any service now