**This documentation is for Version 1 of the Amazon CLI only.**
We announced the upcoming end-of-support for the Amazon CLI version 1. We recommend that you migrate to the Amazon CLI version 2. For dates, additional details, and information on how to migrate, see the [announcement](https://amazonaws-china.com/blogs/developer/cli-v1-maintenance-mode-announcement/). For documentation related to Version 2 of the Amazon CLI, see the [Version 2 User Guide](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/userguide/).
# Command line options in the Amazon CLI
In the Amazon CLI, command line options are global parameters you can use to override the default configuration settings, any corresponding profile setting, or environment variable setting for that single command. You can't use command line options to directly specify credentials, although you can specify which profile to use.
**Topics**
+ [How to use command line options](#cli-configure-options-how)
+ [Amazon CLI supported global command line options](#cli-configure-options-list)
+ [Common uses of command line options](#cli-configure-options-common)
## How to use command line options
Most command line options are simple strings, such as the profile name `profile1` in the following example:
```
$ aws s3 ls --profile profile1
amzn-s3-demo-bucket1
amzn-s3-demo-bucket2
...
```
Each option that takes an argument requires a space or equals sign (=) separating the argument from the option name. If the argument value is a string that contains a space, you must use quotation marks around the argument. For details on argument types and formatting for parameters, see [Specifying parameter values in the Amazon CLI](cli-usage-parameters.md).
## Amazon CLI supported global command line options
In the Amazon CLI you can use the following command line options to override the default configuration settings, any corresponding profile setting, or environment variable setting for that single command.
**--ca-bundle ****
Specifies the certificate authority (CA) certificate bundle to use when verifying SSL certificates.
If defined, this option overrides the value for the profile setting `ca\$1bundle` and the `AWS\$1CA\$1BUNDLE` environment variable.
**--cli-connect-timeout ****
Specifies the maximum socket connect time in seconds. If the value is set to zero (0), the socket connect waits indefinitely (is blocking) and doesn't timeout. The default value is 60 seconds.
**--cli-read-timeout ****
Specifies the maximum socket read time in seconds. If the value is set to zero (0) the socket read waits indefinitely (is blocking) and doesn't timeout. The default value is 60 seconds.
**--color ****
Specifies support for color output. Valid values are `on`, `off`, and `auto`. The default value is `auto`.
**--debug**
A Boolean switch that enables debug logging. The Amazon CLI by default provides cleaned up information regarding any successes or failures regarding command outcomes in the command output. The `--debug` option provides the full Python logs. This includes additional `stderr` diagnostic information about the operation of the command that can be useful when troubleshooting why a command provides unexpected results. To easily view debug logs, we suggest sending the logs to a file to more easily search the information. You can do this by using one of the following.
To send **only** the `stderr` diagnostic information, append `2> debug.txt` where `debug.txt` is the name you want to use for your debug file:
```
$ aws servicename commandname options --debug 2> debug.txt
```
To send **both** the output and `stderr` diagnostic information, append `&> debug.txt` where `debug.txt` is the name you want to use for your debug file:
```
$ aws servicename commandname options --debug &> debug.txt
```
**--endpoint-url ****
Specifies the URL to send the request to. For most commands, the Amazon CLI automatically determines the URL based on the selected service and the specified Amazon Region. However, some commands require that you specify an account-specific URL. You can also configure some Amazon services to [host an endpoint directly within your private VPC](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/vpc/latest/userguide/what-is-amazon-vpc.html#what-is-privatelink), which might then need to be specified.
The following command example uses a custom Amazon S3 endpoint URL.
```
$ aws s3 ls --endpoint-url http://localhost:4567
```
**Endpoint precedence**
Endpoint configuration settings are located in multiple places, such as the system or user environment variables, local Amazon configuration files, or explicitly declared on the command line as a parameter. The Amazon CLI checks these endpoint settings in a particular order, and uses the endpoint setting with the highest precedence. For the endpoint precedence list, see [Endpoint configuration and settings precedence](cli-configure-endpoints.md#endpoints-precedence).
**--no-paginate**
A Boolean switch that disables the multiple calls the automatically Amazon CLI makes to receive all command results that creates pagination of the output. This means only the first page of your output is displayed.
**--no-sign-request**
A Boolean switch that disables signing the HTTP requests to the Amazon service endpoint. This prevents credentials from being loaded.
**--no-verify-ssl**
By default, the Amazon CLI uses SSL when communicating with Amazon services. For each SSL connection and call, the Amazon CLI verifies the SSL certificates. Using this option overrides the default behavior of verifying SSL certificates.
This option is **not** best practice. If you use `--no-verify-ssl`, your traffic between your client and Amazon services is no longer secured. This means your traffic is a security risk and vulnerable to man-in-the-middle exploits. If you're having issues with certificates, it's best to resolve those issues instead. For certificate troubleshooting steps, see [SSL certificate errors](cli-chap-troubleshooting.md#tshoot-certificate-verify-failed).
**--output ****
Specifies the output format to use for this command. You can specify any of the following values:
+ **[`json`](cli-usage-output-format.md#json-output)** – The output is formatted as a [JSON](https://json.org/) string.
+ **[`text`](cli-usage-output-format.md#text-output)** – The output is formatted as multiple lines of tab-separated string values. This can be useful to pass the output to a text processor, like `grep`, `sed`, or `awk`.
+ **[`table`](cli-usage-output-format.md#table-output)** – The output is formatted as a table using the characters \$1\$1- to form the cell borders. It typically presents the information in a "human-friendly" format that is much easier to read than the others, but not as programmatically useful.
**--profile ****
Specifies the [named profile](cli-configure-files.md#cli-configure-files-using-profiles) to use for this command. To set up additional named profiles, you can use the `aws configure` command with the `--profile` option.
```
$ aws configure --profile
```
**--query ****
Specifies a [JMESPath query](https://jmespath.org/) to use in filtering the response data. For more information, see [Filtering output in the Amazon CLI](cli-usage-filter.md).
**--region ****
Specifies which Amazon Region to send this command's Amazon request to. For a list of all of the Regions that you can specify, see [Amazon Regions and Endpoints](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/general/latest/gr/rande.html) in the *Amazon Web Services General Reference*.
**--v2-debug**
Enables v1-to-v2 upgrade debug mode. While in this mode, the Amazon CLI will detect usage of features that were updated with breaking changes in Amazon CLI v2, and output warnings for each detected usage that is potentially impacted. You can use this mode to prepare your environment and Amazon CLI usage for upgrading to v2.
This option overrides the `AWS\$1CLI\$1UPGRADE\$1DEBUG\$1MODE` environment variable.
For information on the Amazon CLI v1-to-v2 upgrade debug mode, see [Using upgrade debug mode to upgrade Amazon CLI version 1 to Amazon CLI version 2](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-upgrade-debug-mode.html).
**--version**
A Boolean switch that displays the current version of the Amazon CLI program that is running.
## Common uses of command line options
Common uses for command line options include checking your resources in multiple Amazon Regions, and changing the output format for legibility or ease of use when scripting. In the following examples, we run the **describe-instances** command against each Region until we find which Region our instance is in.
```
$ aws ec2 describe-instances --output table --region us-west-1
-------------------
|DescribeInstances|
+-----------------+
$ aws ec2 describe-instances --output table --region us-west-2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| DescribeInstances |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|| Reservations ||
|+-------------------------------------+------------------------------------+|
|| OwnerId | 012345678901 ||
|| ReservationId | r-abcdefgh ||
|+-------------------------------------+------------------------------------+|
||| Instances |||
||+------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+||
||| AmiLaunchIndex | 0 |||
||| Architecture | x86_64 |||
...
```