AWS CLI V2 is generally available since February 2020. BUT…

The AWS CLI V2 is distributed as a binary package, but this new distribution method comes with a few caveats.

It is distributed as a binary package (built on Python with PyInstaller that has bundled native libs) BUT…

• Problem #1 this requires a decent GLIBC and probably won’t run on older Red Hat distributions.
• Problem #2 as it turns out, many people use the official docker images to build their images and push to AWS ECR. And since these images are based on Alpine and therefore use MUSL and NOT GLIBC, it simply won’t run (but well, people have seen Alpine pipelines in AWS builds now, although they do NOT support any other Linux than their own; probably THEY HAVE TO).
• Problem #3 you now have to download the application to update it (hey, the way to install software on Windows or Mac? But hey, an own updater with aws/install --update).
• Problem #4 forget installing and updating from pip for now; well, you can directly pip from the repo, BUT it’s tricky. Although the version says 2.0.38 (no beta or alpha!) it still requires a botocore==2.0.0dev42. I guess they should suffix a “ga” for “General Availability”.
• Problem #5 If you belong to the majority (or the people with broken python installations) please refrain from saying “I have no problems! It’s better now!”

Anyway, they have some nice features now, and it seems they packed aws-shell right into the CLI: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/developer/aws-cli-v2-is-now-generally-available/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5y7JI_mHk8

UPDATE: It is possible to use GLIBC in Alpine and also get the size of AWS CLI down: http://blog.evolution515.net/2020/12/10/how-to-get-aws-cli-v2-down-from-127m-to-67m/