How to download the latest file in a S3 bucket using AWS CLI

Question

I have an S3 bucket that contains database backups. I am creating a script that I would like to download the latest backup, but I'm not sure how to go about only grabbing the most recent file from a bucket.

Is it possible to copy only the most recent file from a s3 bucket to a local directory using AWS CLI tools?

Archana · Answer 1 · Sep 6, 2018

You can use the below command

$ aws s3 ls $BUCKET --recursive | sort | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $4}' some/other/object

Command explained

$ aws s3 ls $BUCKET --recursive -- Lists all the objects in bucket

$ aws s3 ls $BUCKET --recursive | sort -- Lists all the objects based on date

$ aws s3 ls $BUCKET --recursive | sort | tail -n 1 -- Selects the last line of the output ie most recent object

$ aws s3 ls $BUCKET --recursive | sort | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $4}' -- prints the name of most recent object

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