How to turn off the pager for AWS CLI return value?

Question

I am attempting to utilize the AWS CLI along with a for loop in bash to iteratively purge multiple SQS message queues. The bash script works almost as intended, the problem I am having is with the return value each time the AWS CLI sends a request. When the request is successful, it returns an empty value and opens up an interactive pager in the command line. I then have to manually type q to exit the interactive screen and allow the for loop to continue to the next iteration. This becomes very tedious and time consuming when attempting to purge a large number of queues.

Is there a way to configure AWS CLI to disable this interactive pager from popping up for every return value? Or a way to pipe the return values into a separate file instead of being displayed?

I have played around with configuring different return value types (text, yaml, JSON) but haven't had any luck. Also the --no-pagination parameter doesn't change the behavior.

Here's an example of the bash script I'm trying to run:

for x in 1 2 3; do 
  aws sqs purge-queue --queue-url https://sqs.<aws-region>.amazonaws.com/<id>/<env>-$x-<queueName>.fifo; 
done

Shoon

I can't reproduce this, Can you share an example? maybe share with us the SQS or the interactive pager? – Pictograph

Did you try echo q | aws sqs ... ? – Dhahran

Rewrite the for x (1 2 3), options: for x in 1 2 3, for x in {1..3} and for ((x=1; x<=3; x++)). – Dhahran

--no-pagination refers to server-side pagination, for situations where the result of a list command would be too long for the server to respond the full list in a single response. It does not affect client-side pagination. – Solitta

Answer 1

Just running into this issue myself, I was able to disable the behaviour by invoking the aws cli as AWS_PAGER="" aws ....

Alternatively you could simply export AWS_PAGER="" at the top of your (bash) script.

Source: https://github.com/aws/aws-cli/pull/4702#issue-344978525

Huehuebner

Nice find on that Github pull request, that was exactly what I was trying to find in the AWS documentation but never had any luck. Thanks! – Shoon

As that source mentions, if you aren't into the env var solution, you can also add cli_pager = cat to your ~/.aws/config – Commune

Amazing! finally got rid of the annoying behaviour on my ssm script – Revulsion

Here's the documentation on this as well as a lot of other useful configuration options: docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/… – Invalidism

And if you don't want the extra feed through cat, you can just set cli_pager = in your aws config – Herman

Answer 2

You can also use --no-cli-pager in AWS CLI version 2.

See the "Client-side pager" section here https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-usage-pagination.html

Nightgown

Answer 3

You can disable pager either by exporting AWS_PAGER="" or by modifying you AWS cli config file.

export AWS_PAGER="" 

### or update your ~/.aws/config with 

[default]
cli_pager=

Alternatively, you can enable the default pager to output of less program as

export AWS_PAGER="less" 

or corresponding config change.

Ref: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-usage-pagination.html#cli-usage-pagination-clientside

Jazzy

To update aws configuration file, this command can be used: aws configure set cli_pager "". Append --profile profile-name to disable pager specifically for a profile. – Regen

Answer 4

You can set the environment variable PAGER to "cat" to force awscli to not start up less:

PAGER=cat aws sqs list-queues

I set up as a shell alias to make my life easier:

# ~/.zshrc
alias aws="PAGER=cat aws"

Bethel

Nice, this works. Looks like you can also use PAGER="" to achieve the same result. Thanks! – Shoon

Answer 5

I am using the aws cli v2 via docker and passing the --env AWS_PAGER="" on the docker run command fixed this issue for me on windows 10 using git bash.

I set it up as an alias as well so things work with jq.

How to set your docker env values:

• https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/run/#set-environment-variables--e---env---env-file

Example alias: docker run --rm -it -v c:/users/me/.aws:/root/.aws --env AWS_PAGER="" amazon/aws-cli

Erichericha

you have a typo in first line. --env AWS_PAGEER="" two EE. Otherwise thumbs up! – Ehlke

Answer 6

Inside your ~/.aws/config file, add:

cli_pager=

Wallaroo

nice approach! works for me. it should belong to some profile, which i missed in the first step docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/… – Justify