Amazon Web Services (AWS) - List Amazon Machine Images (AMI) using the AWS CLI

by
Jeremy Canfield |
Updated: May 25 2023
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) articles
This assumes you have already configured the aws command line tool. If not, check out my article on Getting Started with the AWS CLI.
The aws ec2 describe-images command can be used to list all of the available EC2 images.
aws ec2 describe-images
If you are looking for a specific image, the --filters option can be used.
aws ec2 describe-images --filters "Name=name,Values=amzn2-ami-kernel-*-x86_64-*"
And here is an example of how to limit the output using the --query option.
aws ec2 describe-images --query 'Images[?Name==`amzn2-ami-kernel-5.10-hvm-2.0.20221103.3-x86_64-gp2`]'
Something like this should be returned.
{
"Images": [
{
"Architecture": "x86_64",
"CreationDate": "2022-11-14T15:27:30.000Z",
"ImageId": "ami-0c306652768ec4cc5",
"ImageLocation": "929637706107/isc-ga-2022-2-0-368-0-irishealth-community-image",
"ImageType": "machine",
"Public": true,
"OwnerId": "929637706107",
"PlatformDetails": "Linux/UNIX",
"UsageOperation": "RunInstances",
"State": "available",
"BlockDeviceMappings": [
{
"DeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
"Ebs": {
"DeleteOnTermination": true,
"SnapshotId": "snap-090c2dd83f08b2d03",
"VolumeSize": 15,
"VolumeType": "gp2",
"Encrypted": false
}
},
{
"DeviceName": "/dev/sdb",
"VirtualName": "ephemeral0"
},
{
"DeviceName": "/dev/sdc",
"VirtualName": "ephemeral1"
}
],
"Description": "isc-ga-2022-2-0-368-0-irishealth-community-image",
"EnaSupport": true,
"Hypervisor": "xen",
"Name": "isc-ga-2022-2-0-368-0-irishealth-community-image",
"RootDeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
"RootDeviceType": "ebs",
"SriovNetSupport": "simple",
"VirtualizationType": "hvm",
"DeprecationTime": "2024-11-14T15:27:30.000Z"
}
]
}
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