AWS: Install and configure the AWS CLI on a Macbook

You can absolutely get the following from the AWS help pages; but this is the lazy way to get everything you need for a simple single account setup.

Run the two commands below to drop the package on your Mac.

$ curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/AWSCLIV2.pkg" -o "AWSCLIV2.pkg"
$ sudo installer -pkg AWSCLIV2.pkg -target /

Then check the versions you have installed:

$ which aws
$ aws --version

Next you need to setup your environment. Note: This is NOT the recommended way (as it uses long term credentials).

The following example configures a default profile using sample values. Replace them with your own values as described in the following sections.

$ aws configure
AWS Access Key ID [None]: AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: secretaccesskey
Default region name [None]: af-south-1
Default output format [None]: json

You can also use named profiles. The following example configures a profile named userprod using sample values. Replace them with your own values as described in the following sections.

$ aws configure --profile userprod
AWS Access Key ID [None]: AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: secretaccesskey
Default region name [None]: af-south-1
Default output format [None]: json

Get your access keys

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the IAM console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/.
2. In the navigation pane of the IAM console, select Users and then select the User name of the user that you created previously.
3. On the user’s page, select the Security credentials page. Then, under Access keys, select Create access key.
4. For Create access key Step 1, choose Command Line Interface (CLI).
5. For Create access key Step 2, enter an optional tag and select Next.
6. For Create access key Step 3, select Download .csv file to save a .csv file with your IAM user’s access key and secret access key. You need this information for later.
7. Select Done.