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The New AWS Command-Line Interface

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Re: The New AWS Command-Line Interface

#11

Post by gtaylor »

sivers wrote: post #3

FWIW, I've been using the aws command-line tool by Tim Kay for over 6 years. It's only Perl and cURL. A single self-contained script with no other dependencies. It's been rock solid in production that whole time: http://timkay.com/aws/ The syntax looks quite the same, but Amazon's awscli Python installer has loads of dependencies. I'll have to see if it's worth switching. Anyone already know if Amazon's new CLI thing…

> The syntax looks quite the same, but Amazon's awscli Python installer has loads of dependencies. I'll have to see if it's worth switching.

Why are the dependencies a problem? By combining a handful of smaller, focused modules that each do something well, you can end up with something better than if you were to re-invent the wheel for every need.

AWS and the Python dev team are doing a heck of a job on botocore, and have cranked up the pace of improvement in the last 6 months. This CLI reaching "official" status will guarantee (at least until further notice) that it will see updates and fixes. It's likely to see early or earlier support for new AWS services.

Re: The New AWS Command-Line Interface

#12

Post by thex86 »

rrrhys wrote: post #8
unono wrote: post #7

About time. More startups should realize that they could increase developer adoption of their products if also published shell script interfaces to their product. In fact, your startup should really start off as command line accessible and add the gui after.

"start off as command line accessible and add the gui after" As much as I'd love this to be true, it is so wrong unless you are targeting other very technical users. Most people I know (ie, potential customers) think anything in the command line is old/impossible to use/nerdy.

Right, in this case it actually makes sense because you will already be technically proficient if you are using something like AWS. But in other cases, the GUI can be the main interface, but a CLI to back it up is pretty awesome and I had happily pay some provider extra bucks for it.

Re: The New AWS Command-Line Interface

#13

Post by MichaelGG »

jeffbarr wrote: post #10
unono wrote: post #7

About time. More startups should realize that they could increase developer adoption of their products if also published shell script interfaces to their product. In fact, your startup should really start off as command line accessible and add the gui after.

There have been CLI tools for some parts of AWS since the beginning. This release replaces a set of disparate tools (each with their own installation instructions and configuration issues) with a unified set. > In fact, your startup should really start off as command line accessible... I would argue that startups should always start at the API level and work upwards. At least that's what we did with AWS.

Starting off from the API seems like the only sensible way to approach things. It exposes core design issues early on, and if done right, eliminates a wide source of security issues that might be introduced by, say, the front-end developers.

Re: The New AWS Command-Line Interface

#14

Post by jeffbarr »

thex86 wrote: post #12
rrrhys wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"start off as command line accessible and add the gui after" As much as I'd love this to be true, it is so wrong unless you are targeting other very technical users. Most people I know (ie, potential customers) think anything in the command line is old/impossible to use/nerdy.

Right, in this case it actually makes sense because you will already be technically proficient if you are using something like AWS. But in other cases, the GUI can be the main interface, but a CLI to back it up is pretty awesome and I had happily pay some provider extra bucks for it.

I'm with you on this. As an "old" command line person (I first learned Unix in 1980 or so), I still tend to think of the GUI as an add-on.

Re: The New AWS Command-Line Interface

#16

Post by dmourati »

kondro wrote: post #9

Whilst this is a much better solution that the existing slow tools Amazon provided, I don't understand why this is being reported as if command-line tools for AWS are a new thing. Command-line tools used to be your only option for managing AWS and Amazon always create their API and shell tools before the Console.

Yea, not a new thing, even the command names are mostly the same.

$ ec2-describe-instances

$ aws ec2 describe-instances …

Pretty strange decision IMO.

Re: The New AWS Command-Line Interface

#18

Post by vacri »

dmourati wrote: post #16
kondro wrote: post #9

Whilst this is a much better solution that the existing slow tools Amazon provided, I don't understand why this is being reported as if command-line tools for AWS are a new thing. Command-line tools used to be your only option for managing AWS and Amazon always create their API and shell tools before the Console.

Yea, not a new thing, even the command names are mostly the same. $ ec2-describe-instances $ aws ec2 describe-instances … Pretty strange decision IMO.

It's unifying the commands. Just this morning I've been struggling with ascli (autoscaling cli), which has its own method for listing AWS keys that don't match the way other tools do it.
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