failmode

They're good questions. I can tell you how I manage regions and accounts but am interested in learning how people think Bash-my-AWS might better support users in this regard.

The AWCLI, as well as SDKs all support grabbing Regions and account credentials from environment variables.

For Regions, I work tend to use the following aliases:

  alias au='export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=ap-southeast-2'
  alias us='export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-1'
  alias dr='export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=ap-southeast-1'

I normally work in a single Region and swap when required by typing the 2 character alias.

To run a script or command (doesn't have to be Bash-my-AWS) across all Regions I use region-each:

  $ region-each stacks | column -t
  example-ec2-ap-northeast-1  CREATE_COMPLETE  2011-05-23T15:47:44Z  NEVER_UPDATED  NOT_NESTED  #ap-northeast-1
  example-ec2-ap-northeast-2  CREATE_COMPLETE  2011-05-23T15:47:44Z  NEVER_UPDATED  NOT_NESTED  #ap-northeast-2
  ...
  example-ec2-us-west-2       CREATE_COMPLETE  2011-05-23T15:47:44Z  NEVER_UPDATED  NOT_NESTED  #us-west-2

For AWS accounts, I type the name of the account and I'm in. For accounts using IDP (ldap/AD backed corporate logins) I generate aliases so I have tab completion and simple naming.

In accounts that are only setup to use AWS keys, I use aliases that export credentials kept in GPG encrypted files. Last time I looked, AWS docs suggested keeping these long lives credentials in plaintext files readable by your account. That's asking for trouble IMO, especially if they're kept in a known location that a compromised node library could exfiltrate them from.

AWSCLI v2 beta includes support for SSO so it's probably a good time to look at how BMA could include support for auth.

I don't like to rely on my memory either! I forget the names of commands and use tab completion to list them.

You can just type bma[TAB][TAB] and it will list them all.

If you know the type of resource you are working with, you can use TAB completion to see it's commands:

  $ stack-
  stack-arn            stack-exports        stack-tag-apply
  stack-asg-instances  stack-failure        stack-tag-delete
  stack-asgs           stack-instances      stack-tags
  stack-cancel-update  stack-outputs        stack-tags-text
  stack-create         stack-parameters     stack-tail
  stack-delete         stack-recreate       stack-template
  stack-diff           stack-resources      stack-update
  stack-elbs           stack-status         stack-validate
  stack-events         stack-tag

bash-my-github and bash-my-spotify are two things I've made a start on but are not public yet. They've been on the backburner for a while due to competing priorities.

I was able to write a simple command that returned all songs a friend and I had in common in our public playlists.

I forget the exact syntax but it was something roughly along the lines of:

  $ sort <(
      user-playlists alice | playlist-tracks 
      user-playlists bob | playlist-tracks
    ) | uniq --repeated

AWSCLI backward compatibility has been so good, I've never had a Bash-My-AWS command fail due to a change.

AWS CLI v2 previews were released in Nov 19 and while this may contain some breaking changes, I wouldn't be surprised if all the commands BMA uses continue to work as normal.

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/developer/aws-cli-v2-installers...

I have sometimes questioned whether I should be spending my personal time developing an open source tool so tied to a single companies services.

My reasons for continuing include:

- I prefer to use command line over ClickOps

- Using Bash-My-AWS makes me more effective at work

- The emergent UX is equally applicable to other services (e.g. bash-my-github, bash-my-spotify)

- The intrinsic satisfaction from creating

- Helping improve the experience for others

Thanks!

The intent has always been to enhance rather than replace AWCLI (which is an amazing tool!).

If you're ever wondering how a Bash-My-AWS command works, use `bma type` (it even supports tab completion for all the commands).

  $ bma type instances
  instances is a function
  instances () 
  { 
      local instance_ids=$(__bma_read_inputs);
      local filters=$(__bma_read_filters $@);
      aws ec2 describe-instances $([[ -n ${instance_ids} ]] && echo --instance-ids ${instance_ids}) --query "
          Reservations[].Instances[][
            InstanceId,
            InstanceType,
            State.Name,
            [Tags[?Key=='Name'].Value][0][0],
            LaunchTime,
            Placement.AvailabilityZone,
            VpcId
          ]" --output text | grep -E -- "$filters" | LC_ALL=C sort -b -k 6 | column -s' ' -t
  }

Windows users have commented at how Bash-My-AWS's innovative use of unix streams reminds them of PowerShell.

The listing functions output lines of tokens. The first token is the resource identifier. Piping that output into functions for that resource type results in the resource IDs only being used.

  $ instances
  i-03dfa28fc8235df7b  t3.nano  running  prometheus  2019-12-31T14:10:45.000Z  ap-southeast-2a  vpc-9def06f8
  i-0fd7a4c81051f2718  t3.nano  running  huginn      2019-12-31T14:10:44.000Z  ap-southeast-2a  vpc-9def06f8
  i-0abcd6e9c302f35bb  t3.nano  running  rails-demo  2019-12-31T14:10:47.000Z  ap-southeast-2b  vpc-9def06f8

  $ instances | grep rails-demo | instance-asg | asg-capacity
  rails-demo-AutoScalingGroup-14SBR6O3W1FBL  0  1  2

  $ instances | grep rails-demo | instance-asg | asg-
  asg-capacity              asg-launch-configuration  asg-processes_suspended   asg-stack
  asg-desired-size-set      asg-max-size-set          asg-resume                asg-suspend
  asg-instances             asg-min-size-set          asg-scaling-activities

  $ instances | grep rails-demo | instance-asg | asg-desired-size-set 2
  $ instances | grep rails-demo | instance-asg | asg-capacity
  rails-demo-AutoScalingGroup-14SBR6O3W1FBL  0  2  2

AWSCLI is amazingly flexible and powerful.

Bash-My-AWS thinly wraps AWSCLI commands that would otherwise be too long to type. So you're still using AWSCLI and can improve your skill with it by inspecting the source of Bash-My-AWS functions.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21931298

Bash-My-AWS wraps AWSCLI as thinly as possible and makes use of JMESPath and the text output.

The result is you have a simple set of commands that don't require you to type hundreds of characters.

  instances() {
    local instance_ids=$(__bma_read_inputs)
    local filters=$(__bma_read_filters $@)

    aws ec2 describe-instances                                            \
      $([[ -n ${instance_ids} ]] && echo --instance-ids ${instance_ids})  \
      --query "
        Reservations[].Instances[][
          InstanceId,
          InstanceType,
          State.Name,
          [Tags[?Key=='Name'].Value][0][0],
          LaunchTime,
          Placement.AvailabilityZone,
          VpcId
        ]"                                                               \
      --output text       |
    grep -E -- "$filters" |
    LC_ALL=C sort -b -k 6 |
    column -s$'\t' -t
  }

jq is only used in three of the >120 functions (for sort-keys functionality). All the rest use JMESPath.

If anyone can help with a solution I'd be delighted to remove the dependency on jq.

https://github.com/bash-my-aws/bash-my-aws/blob/b74d92a902bb...