Chapter 12. Another way to play: the command-line interface
If you only knew the kinds of contortions I had to put myself through to avoid mentioning the AWS command-line interface (CLI) until this point in the book (other than my brief lapse back in chapter 7). Pretty much everything you’ve done from the browser-based console could have been done more quickly and efficiently through the CLI, but I held back for two reasons:
- I believe the AWS browser-based console has a sophisticated visual design that better lends itself to quickly grasping the cloud platform’s larger workflow and function. In other words, it makes it easier to learn how to use AWS.
- Although, in the long run, the CLI will probably become your best friend, getting to know it can be complicated at first. So I thought it would be best to leave it until you’re comfortable with the basics.
But now, the hour of reckoning has arrived. It’s CLI time.
The AWS CLI is a set of commands that can run in a command-line terminal. When the CLI is invoked by the prefix aws, the subsequent characters are subjected to special rules of interpretation. Any commands that don’t include the special combinations are ignored and left for the default—or parent—shell.