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Documentation Index

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In this guide, we’ll explore essential Amazon S3 operations—listing, creating, deleting buckets, and managing objects—using the AWS CLI. Automate your workflows and integrate these commands into scripts for seamless infrastructure management.

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Prerequisites

  • AWS CLI installed and configured (aws configure)
  • IAM permissions to list, create, and delete S3 buckets and objects
  • Unique bucket names (globally unique across AWS)
Before creating a bucket, verify the name’s availability. Bucket names must be globally unique and compliant with DNS naming conventions.

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Quick Reference: Common S3 CLI Commands

OperationCommandDescription
List Bucketsaws s3 lsDisplay all S3 buckets in the account
Create Bucketaws s3 mb s3://<bucket-name> --region ...Make a new bucket in a specified region
Delete Bucketaws s3 rb s3://<bucket-name> [--force]Remove an empty bucket or delete recursively
List Objectsaws s3 ls s3://<bucket>Show top-level objects and prefixes
Copy Files/Dirsaws s3 cp <src> <dest> [--recursive]Copy files between local and S3
Move Files/Dirsaws s3 mv <src> <dest> [--recursive]Move files between local and S3
Sync Directoriesaws s3 sync <local> s3://<bucket>Sync only new or changed files
Delete Objectsaws s3 rm s3://<bucket>/<key> [--recursive]Remove objects or entire prefixes

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1. Listing S3 Buckets

Retrieve all buckets in your AWS account: 
$ aws s3 ls
2023-03-29 00:51:27 bucket1
2023-03-28 02:22:48 bucket2
2023-03-28 02:20:43 bucket3

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2. Creating a New Bucket

Use the make bucket command and specify a region: 
$ aws s3 mb s3://newbucket --region us-east-1
make_bucket: newbucket

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3. Deleting a Bucket

Remove an empty bucket: 
$ aws s3 rb s3://newbucket
remove_bucket: newbucket
To delete a bucket and all its contents, add --force: 
$ aws s3 rb s3://newbucket --force
remove_bucket: newbucket
Using --force is irreversible. All objects in the bucket will be permanently deleted.

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4. Listing Objects Inside a Bucket

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4.1 Top-Level Listing

List prefixes (folders) and files at the root of the bucket: 
$ aws s3 ls s3://newbucket
                           PRE logs/
                           PRE media/
2023-03-29 01:38:08          0 file1.txt
2023-03-29 01:38:09          0 file2.txt

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4.2 Recursive Listing

Show every object under the bucket: 
$ aws s3 ls s3://newbucket --recursive
2023-03-29 01:38:08          0 file1.txt
2023-03-29 01:38:09          0 file2.txt
2023-03-29 01:38:09          0 logs/log1
2023-03-29 01:38:09          0 logs/log2
2023-03-29 01:38:10      24599 media/images/image1.png
2023-03-29 01:38:10      21420 media/images/image2.png

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5. Copying Files

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5.1 Local → S3

Upload a file without deleting the source: 
$ aws s3 cp file1.txt s3://newbucket
upload: ./file1.txt to s3://newbucket/file1.txt

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5.2 S3 → Local

Download an object to a local directory: 
$ aws s3 cp s3://newbucket/file1.txt /tmp/
download: s3://newbucket/file1.txt to ./tmp/file1.txt

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5.3 S3 → S3

Copy between two buckets: 
$ aws s3 cp s3://bucket1/file1.txt s3://bucket2/
copy: s3://bucket1/file1.txt to s3://bucket2/file1.txt

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6. Deleting Objects

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6.1 Single Object

$ aws s3 rm s3://bucket/404.html
delete: s3://bucket/404.html

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6.2 Multiple Objects (Recursive)

$ aws s3 rm s3://bucket/logs/ --recursive
delete: s3://bucket/logs/log1
delete: s3://bucket/logs/log2

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7. Directory Operations

Most S3 CLI commands support --recursive to process all files under a directory or prefix.

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7.1 Copy an Entire Directory

$ aws s3 cp media/ s3://newbucket --recursive

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7.2 Move Files and Directories

Use mv to transfer and remove the source: 
# Local → S3
$ aws s3 mv file1.txt s3://newbucket
move: ./file1.txt to s3://newbucket/file1.txt

# S3 → Local
$ aws s3 mv s3://newbucket/file1.txt /tmp/
move: s3://newbucket/file1.txt to ./tmp/file1.txt

# Recursive Move
$ aws s3 mv media/ s3://newbucket --recursive

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8. Synchronizing Directories

Keep a local folder and an S3 prefix in sync. Only new or updated files transfer: 
$ aws s3 sync /path/to/local/dir s3://bucket
upload: home/bob to s3://bucket/home/bob
upload: var/log  to s3://bucket/var/log
Adding new files (for example, etc/ssh) and rerunning uploads only those: 
$ aws s3 sync /path/to/local/dir s3://bucket
upload: etc/ssh to s3://bucket/etc/ssh

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Next Steps

You’ve mastered the core AWS S3 CLI commands for bucket and object management. Apply these operations in scripts or CI/CD pipelines to automate your workflows.

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