How to Get your Default Profile with AWS CLI

# Get your Default Profile with AWS CLI

To see which your default AWS CLI profile is, run the aws configure list command. The command shows the name of the default profile, the profile's security credentials and the region.

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aws configure list

We can see that the default profile's name is tester in the example.

The configure list command also shows where the name of the default profile is set.

You can find the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key of the profile in the credentials file.

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# on Linux and macOS
~/.aws/credentials

# on Windows
C:\Users\USERNAME\.aws\credentials

The region and CLI output format for the profile are stored in the config file in the same directory.

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# on Linux and macOS
~/.aws/config

# on Windows
C:\Users\USERNAME\.aws\config

When an AWS CLI command is invoked, it looks for your credentials in:

1. Command line options - have the highest precedence and override any environment variables or configuration stored in config and credentials files.

   The command line options are: --region, --profile and --output.

2. Environment variables on the machine - have higher precedence than the config and credentials files but get overridden by command line options.

   The environment variables are: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_DEFAULT_OUTPUT, AWS_DEFAULT_REGION, AWS_PROFILE.

3. The config and credentials files on your machine - have the lowest precedence - lower than environment variables and command line options.

If the command's output shows that the Type is set to env and the Location is an environment variable, then it gets higher precedence than the values you've specified in your credentials file.

To verify whether an Environment variable is set on your machine, run the echo command that corresponds to your operating system.

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# Linux and macOS
echo $AWS_PROFILE

# on Windows with CMD
echo %AWS_PROFILE%

# on Windows with PowerShell
echo $Env:AWS_PROFILE

If you want to change your default profile, check out my other article - Set your Default Profile's Name in AWS CLI .

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

• How to Get your Account Id with AWS CLI
• Manage Multiple Accounts with the AWS CLI
• Set your Default Profile's Name in AWS CLI
• How to Clear your AWS CLI Credentials
• View your AWS CLI logs in Real Time (tail)
• How to turn off the Pager in AWS CLI
• Create a Role with AWS CLI - Complete Guide
• Create a Lambda Function with AWS CLI - Complete Guide
• Invoke Lambda Functions with AWS CLI - Complete Guide
• Tag an S3 Bucket with AWS CLI
• AWS CDK Tutorial for Beginners - Step-by-Step Guide
• How to use Parameters in AWS CDK
• The Security Token included in the Request is Invalid
• SignatureDoesNotMatch Error in AWS CLI [Solved]