Code-only flavor of the CLI v2 WITHOUT the built-in Python runtime

[skyzyx]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Related to #4685

Just about everything we do uses Alpine Linux, and that makes the CLI v2 with the built-in, glibc-only binary unusable. It's a non-starter.

Describe the solution you'd like

Could we get a code-only flavor of the CLI v2 WITHOUT the built-in Python runtime? That way, I can bring my own Python interpreter that is compatible with Alpine Linux.

Describe alternatives you've considered

I've already tried installing the backwards-compatibility libraries for glibc into Alpine Linux, but the changes are too low-level for that to work.

Additional context

Related to #4685

[kdaily]

Thanks for the feature request, @skyzyx.

[skyzyx]

Ping.

[graywolf-at-work]

We would definitely be interested in this as well.

[msva]

ping?

[skyzyx]

Just checking in. Even though Alpine is perfectly capable of running the latest versions of Python, it's still not compatible with the wrapper binary used with v2.

Can someone from AWS explain why the binary wrapper was introduced with v2? My wild guess is that it was intended to solve issues for people who needed to use the CLI, but didn't know jack about Python, and the pre-compiled binary was a way to mitigate those issues.

Either way, it would be helpful to understand why AWS doesn't also just release the source-code as a pip package or whatever so that the rest of us can get our work done.

[kdaily]

Hi @skyzyx,

I apologize for the delay. We are working on a source distribution for the AWS CLI v2. You can read about the status here in this update issue:

#6186

We don't have a timeline to release for when this could be made available at this time.

[kdaily]

Hi @skyzyx,

See the recent proposal for building the CLI v2 from source!

#6352

[tim-finnigan]

The AWS CLI team recently published documentation for building CLI v2 from source here: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-source-install.html which contains a section "Alpine Linux container".

[skyzyx]

Does this mean that AWS is going to provide a source distribution? Or does it mean that everyone has to pull the source code and build it themselves?