AWS CLI Command Reference

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[ aws . organizations ]

list-parents

Description

Lists the root or organizational units (OUs) that serve as the immediate parent of the specified child OU or account. This operation, along with ListChildren enables you to traverse the tree structure that makes up this root.

Note

Always check the NextToken response parameter for a null value when calling a List* operation. These operations can occasionally return an empty set of results even when there are more results available. The NextToken response parameter value is null only when there are no more results to display.

This operation can be called only from the organization's management account or by a member account that is a delegated administrator for an Amazon Web Services service.

Note

In the current release, a child can have only a single parent.

See also: AWS API Documentation

list-parents is a paginated operation. Multiple API calls may be issued in order to retrieve the entire data set of results. You can disable pagination by providing the --no-paginate argument. When using --output text and the --query argument on a paginated response, the --query argument must extract data from the results of the following query expressions: Parents

Synopsis

  list-parents
--child-id <value>
[--cli-input-json <value>]
[--starting-token <value>]
[--page-size <value>]
[--max-items <value>]
[--generate-cli-skeleton <value>]
[--debug]
[--endpoint-url <value>]
[--no-verify-ssl]
[--no-paginate]
[--output <value>]
[--query <value>]
[--profile <value>]
[--region <value>]
[--version <value>]
[--color <value>]
[--no-sign-request]
[--ca-bundle <value>]
[--cli-read-timeout <value>]
[--cli-connect-timeout <value>]

Options

--child-id (string)

The unique identifier (ID) of the OU or account whose parent containers you want to list. Don't specify a root.

The regex pattern for a child ID string requires one of the following:

  • Account - A string that consists of exactly 12 digits.
  • Organizational unit (OU) - A string that begins with "ou-" followed by from 4 to 32 lowercase letters or digits (the ID of the root that contains the OU). This string is followed by a second "-" dash and from 8 to 32 additional lowercase letters or digits.

--cli-input-json (string) Performs service operation based on the JSON string provided. The JSON string follows the format provided by --generate-cli-skeleton. If other arguments are provided on the command line, the CLI values will override the JSON-provided values. It is not possible to pass arbitrary binary values using a JSON-provided value as the string will be taken literally.

--starting-token (string)

A token to specify where to start paginating. This is the NextToken from a previously truncated response.

For usage examples, see Pagination in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide .

--page-size (integer)

The size of each page to get in the AWS service call. This does not affect the number of items returned in the command's output. Setting a smaller page size results in more calls to the AWS service, retrieving fewer items in each call. This can help prevent the AWS service calls from timing out.

For usage examples, see Pagination in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide .

--max-items (integer)

The total number of items to return in the command's output. If the total number of items available is more than the value specified, a NextToken is provided in the command's output. To resume pagination, provide the NextToken value in the starting-token argument of a subsequent command. Do not use the NextToken response element directly outside of the AWS CLI.

For usage examples, see Pagination in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide .

--generate-cli-skeleton (string) Prints a JSON skeleton to standard output without sending an API request. If provided with no value or the value input, prints a sample input JSON that can be used as an argument for --cli-input-json. If provided with the value output, it validates the command inputs and returns a sample output JSON for that command.

Global Options

--debug (boolean)

Turn on debug logging.

--endpoint-url (string)

Override command's default URL with the given URL.

--no-verify-ssl (boolean)

By default, the AWS CLI uses SSL when communicating with AWS services. For each SSL connection, the AWS CLI will verify SSL certificates. This option overrides the default behavior of verifying SSL certificates.

--no-paginate (boolean)

Disable automatic pagination. If automatic pagination is disabled, the AWS CLI will only make one call, for the first page of results.

--output (string)

The formatting style for command output.

  • json
  • text
  • table

--query (string)

A JMESPath query to use in filtering the response data.

--profile (string)

Use a specific profile from your credential file.

--region (string)

The region to use. Overrides config/env settings.

--version (string)

Display the version of this tool.

--color (string)

Turn on/off color output.

  • on
  • off
  • auto

--no-sign-request (boolean)

Do not sign requests. Credentials will not be loaded if this argument is provided.

--ca-bundle (string)

The CA certificate bundle to use when verifying SSL certificates. Overrides config/env settings.

--cli-read-timeout (int)

The maximum socket read time in seconds. If the value is set to 0, the socket read will be blocking and not timeout. The default value is 60 seconds.

--cli-connect-timeout (int)

The maximum socket connect time in seconds. If the value is set to 0, the socket connect will be blocking and not timeout. The default value is 60 seconds.

Examples

Note

To use the following examples, you must have the AWS CLI installed and configured. See the Getting started guide in the AWS CLI User Guide for more information.

Unless otherwise stated, all examples have unix-like quotation rules. These examples will need to be adapted to your terminal's quoting rules. See Using quotation marks with strings in the AWS CLI User Guide .

To list the parent OUs or roots for an account or child OU

The following example you how to list the root or parent OU that contains that account 444444444444:

aws organizations list-parents --child-id 444444444444

The output shows that the specified account is in the OU with specified ID:

{
  "Parents": [
        {
          "Id": "ou-examplerootid111-exampleouid111",
          "Type": "ORGANIZATIONAL_UNIT"
        }
  ]
}

Output

Parents -> (list)

A list of parents for the specified child account or OU.

(structure)

Contains information about either a root or an organizational unit (OU) that can contain OUs or accounts in an organization.

Id -> (string)

The unique identifier (ID) of the parent entity.

The regex pattern for a parent ID string requires one of the following:

  • Root - A string that begins with "r-" followed by from 4 to 32 lowercase letters or digits.
  • Organizational unit (OU) - A string that begins with "ou-" followed by from 4 to 32 lowercase letters or digits (the ID of the root that the OU is in). This string is followed by a second "-" dash and from 8 to 32 additional lowercase letters or digits.

Type -> (string)

The type of the parent entity.

NextToken -> (string)

If present, indicates that more output is available than is included in the current response. Use this value in the NextToken request parameter in a subsequent call to the operation to get the next part of the output. You should repeat this until the NextToken response element comes back as null .