Getting started with AWS CloudShell

To choose an AWS Region to work in, go to the Select a Region menu and select a supported AWS Region to work in. (Available Regions are highlighted.)

From the AWS Management Console, you can launch CloudShell by choosing one of the following options:

When the command prompt displays, the shell is ready for interaction.

To choose a pre-installed shell to work with, enter its program name at the command line prompt.

For information about the versions pre-installed in your shell environment, see the shells table in the AWS CloudShell compute environment section.

To download a file, go to Actions and choose Download file from the menu.

The Download file dialog box displays.

In the Download file dialog box, enter the path for the file to be downloaded.

Choose Download.

If the file path is correct, a dialog box displays. You can use this dialog box to open the file with the default application. Or, you can save the file to a folder on your local machine.

To check your current working directory, at the prompt enter the following command:

pwd

When you press Enter, the shell returns your current working directory (for example, /home/cloudshell-user).

To upload a file to this directory, go to Actions and choose Upload file from the menu.

The Upload file dialog box displays.

Choose Browse.

In your system's File upload dialog box, select the text file that you created for this tutorial (add_prog.py) and choose Open.

In the Upload file dialog box, choose Upload.

A progress bar tracks the upload. If the upload is successful, a message confirms that add_prog.py was added to the root of your home directory.

To create a directory for the file, enter the make directories command: mkdir mysub_dir.

To move the uploaded file from the root of your home directory to the new directory, use the mv command:

mv add_prog.py mysub_dir.

To change your working directory to the new directory, enter cd mysub_dir.

The command prompt updates to indicate you've changed your working directory.

To view the contents of the current directory, mysub_dir, enter the ls command.

The contents of the working directory are listed. This includes the file that you just uploaded.

To remove a file from AWS CloudShell, use standard shell commands such as rm (remove).

rm my-file-for-removal

To remove multiple files that meet specified criteria, run the find command.

The following example removes all the files that include the suffix ".pdf" in their names.

find -type f -name '*.pdf' -delete

Create a backup file

Create a temporary folder outside the home directory.

HOME_BACKUP_DIR=$(mktemp --directory)

You can use one of the following options to create a backup:

1. Create a backup file using tar

   To create a backup file using tar, enter the following command:

   tar \
       --create \
       --gzip \
       --verbose \
       --file=${HOME_BACKUP_DIR}/home.tar.gz \
       [--exclude ${HOME}/.cache] \ // Optional
       ${HOME}/
   echo "Home directory backed up to this file: ${HOME_BACKUP_DIR}/home.tar.gz"

2. Create a backup file using zip

   To create a backup file using zip, enter the following command:

   zip \
       --recurse-paths \
       ${HOME_BACKUP_DIR}/home.zip \
       ${HOME} \
       [--exclude ${HOME}/.cache/\*] // Optional
   echo "Home directory backed up to this file: ${HOME_BACKUP_DIR}/home.zip"

Transfer the backup file outside CloudShell

You can use one of the following options to transfer the backup file outside CloudShell:

1. Download the backup file on your local machine

   You can download the file created in the previous step. For more information about how to download a file from CloudShell, see Download a file from AWS CloudShell.

   In the download file dialogue box, enter the path for the file to be downloaded (for example, /tmp/tmp.iA99tD9L98/home.tar.gz).

2. Transfer the backup file to S3

   To generate a bucket, enter the following command:

   aws s3 mb s3://${BUCKET_NAME}

   Use AWS CLI to copy the file to the S3 bucket:

   aws s3 cp ${HOME_BACKUP_DIR}/home.tar.gz s3://${BUCKET_NAME}

   Note

   Data transfer charges might apply.

Backup directly to an S3 bucket

To backup directly to an S3 bucket, enter the following command:

aws s3 cp \
    ${HOME}/ \
    s3://${BUCKET_NAME} \
    --recursive \
    [--exclude .cache/\*] // Optional

To restart a shell session, choose Actions, Restart.

You're notified that restarting AWS CloudShell stops all active sessions in the current AWS Region.

To confirm, choose Restart.

An interface displays a message that the CloudShell compute environment is stopping. After the environment stopped and restarted, you can start working with the command line in a new session.

To delete a shell session, choose Actions, Delete.

You’re notified that deleting AWS CloudShell home directory deletes all data currently stored in your AWS CloudShell environment.

To confirm deletion, enter delete in the text input field, and then choose Delete.

AWS CloudShell stops all active sessions in the current AWS Region. You can create a new environment or setup a CloudShell VPC environment.

To create a new environment, choose Open a tab.

To create a CloudShell VPC environment, choose Create a VPC environment.

Manually exiting shell sessions

With the command line, you can leave a shell session and log out using the exit command. You can then press any key to reconnect and continue to use AWS CloudShell.

To edit the file you uploaded in the previous step, enter the following command:

vim add_prog.py

The shell interface refreshes to display the Vim editor.

To edit the file in Vim, press the I key. Now edit the contents so the program adds up three numbers instead of two.

import sys
x=int(sys.argv[1])
y=int(sys.argv[2])
z=int(sys.argv[3])
sum=x+y+z
print("The sum is",sum)

After you edited the program, press Esc to enter the Vim command mode. Then, enter the :wq command to save the file and exit the editor.

On the main command line interface, run the following program and specify three numbers for input. The syntax is as follows.

python3 add_prog.py 4 5 6

The command line displays the program output: The sum is 15.

To create a bucket in a specified AWS Region, enter the following command:

aws s3api create-bucket --bucket insert-unique-bucket-name-here --region us-east-1

$ aws s3api create-bucket --bucket my-bucket --region eu-west-1 --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=eu-west-1

If the call is successful, the command line displays a response from the service similar to the following output.

{
    "Location": "/insert-unique-bucket-name-here"
}                    

To upload a file and add the file as an object to the bucket that you just created, call the PutObject method.

aws s3api put-object --bucket insert-unique-bucket-name-here --key add_prog --body add_prog.py

After the object is uploaded to the Amazon S3 bucket, the command line displays a response from the service similar to the following output:

{"ETag": "\"ab123c1:w:wad4a567d8bfd9a1234ebeea56\""}

The ETag is the hash of the object that was stored. You can use this hash to check the integrity of the object uploaded to Amazon S3.