AWS CLI Command Line: How to use "--query" to output multiple source lines

Question

I am using aws-cli version 1.7.8 to get the --query output to create one record that is derived from multiple lines. In this case I am trying to get specific information from describe-instances.

In the describe-instances command, we get lines / sections that refer to RESERVATIONS , INSTANCES , and TAGS .

I am able to simply run the new AWS CLI command to get the information from all three lines individually:

RESERVATION line:

aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-ids i-xxxxxxxx --query 'Reservations[*].ReservationId'

INSTANCE line:

aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-ids i-xxxxxxxx --query 'Reservations[*].[Instances[*].[InstanceId,ImageId]]'

TAG line:

aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-ids i-xxxxxxxx --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].[Tags[?Key==Name]]'

I can run these 3 commands, and concatenate the results to form 1 record.

Does anyone know if there is a way I can run this as ONE (1) command, instead of 3 distinct commands?

I've tried PIPE and other forms of syntax, but I'm not able to find a good solution as of yet.

Can I get the equivalent output of these 3 commands from a single command?

Run the Windows commands from a powershell prompt in Windows. Then it will return results. — Patrick Parks, Jun 02 '17 at 20:04

Peycho Dimitrov · Answer 1 · 2015-03-28T10:51:12.877

35

aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-id i-77777777 \
  --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId,ImageId,Tags[*]]' \
  --output text

This command will print Instance Id, AMI ID, Key and Value Tags. You can see more examples here: Controlling Command Output from the AWS Command Line Interface

edited Mar 28 '15 at 10:51

answered Mar 27 '15 at 18:22

Peycho Dimitrov

988
7
9

1

Adding a brief description of what the command is doing might be helpful. – dawud Mar 27 '15 at 20:45
would this only work in non-windows based CLI ? I tried it in Windows CMD - it didn't but - in CentOS - it worked. – Naveen Vijay Jun 28 '15 at 23:36
Where is some documentation on the query syntax??? – cosbor11 Feb 09 '16 at 20:23
Yes. Here you are: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/controlling-output.html – Peycho Dimitrov Feb 10 '16 at 21:01
The AWS docs only has a few examples. Isn't there a full spec on the syntax? – cosbor11 Feb 12 '16 at 08:20
It may be easier to output in JSON and use 'jq' to manipulate. I want to do similar things to purge entries from security groups, but only selected combinations of attributes. – mckenzm Mar 29 '18 at 03:56
Thanks. Just to add, if someone wants resulting object, use this syntax in the end of command: `.{id: InstanceId, image: ImageId}` so on so forth. – Lazyexpert Aug 10 '18 at 09:28

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 04 '18 at 12:57

1

With Windows (cmd.exe, cmder.exe, etc.), one must use double quotes (") instead of single quotes (') around the query string. Otherwise the console simply prints the path in the query and doesn't even generate an error.

answered Sep 04 '18 at 12:57

Jason

11
2

AWS CLI Command Line: How to use "--query" to output multiple source lines

2 Answers2