Aws-cli: `aws s3api create-bucket` not honoring `--region` argument

[timkendrick]

I've just started using the AWS CLI, and it seems that whatever I try to create a bucket using the aws s3api create-bucket command, it ignores both the --region argument passed to the command, and the region setting in my ~/.aws/config.

Example output below:

$ aws --version
aws-cli/1.9.11 Python/2.7.10 Darwin/14.5.0 botocore/1.3.11

$ aws s3api create-bucket --bucket bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3 --region eu-west-1
{
    "Location": "/bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3"
}
$ aws s3api get-bucket-location --bucket bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3
{
    "LocationConstraint": null
}

...however it all works fine when I use the aws s3 mb command:

$ aws s3 mb s3://158d3cbb-97fa-43af-a637-992b4e80dd57 --region eu-west-1
make_bucket: s3://158d3cbb-97fa-43af-a637-992b4e80dd57/
$ aws s3api get-bucket-location --bucket 158d3cbb-97fa-43af-a637-992b4e80dd57
{
    "LocationConstraint": "eu-west-1"
}

Full debug output below:

$ aws s3api create-bucket --bucket bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3 --region eu-west-1 --debug
2015-12-04 15:37:16,085 - MainThread - awscli.clidriver - DEBUG - CLI version: aws-cli/1.9.9 Python/2.7.10 Darwin/14.5.0 botocore/1.3.9
2015-12-04 15:37:16,086 - MainThread - awscli.clidriver - DEBUG - Arguments entered to CLI: ['s3api', 'create-bucket', '--bucket', 'bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3', '--region', 'eu-west-1', '--debug']
2015-12-04 15:37:16,086 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event session-initialized: calling handler <function add_scalar_parsers at 0x107d588c0>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,086 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event session-initialized: calling handler <function inject_assume_role_provider at 0x107d28758>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,086 - MainThread - botocore.credentials - DEBUG - Skipping environment variable credential check because profile name was explicitly set.
2015-12-04 15:37:16,118 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event service-data-loaded.s3: calling handler <function register_retries_for_service at 0x1078140c8>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,118 - MainThread - botocore.handlers - DEBUG - Registering retry handlers for service: s3
2015-12-04 15:37:16,120 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event building-command-table.s3api: calling handler <function add_waiters at 0x107d34c80>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,123 - MainThread - awscli.clidriver - DEBUG - OrderedDict([(u'acl', <awscli.arguments.CLIArgument object at 0x1082b96d0>), (u'bucket', <awscli.arguments.CLIArgument object at 0x1082b9710>), (u'create-bucket-configuration', <awscli.arguments.CLIArgument object at 0x1082b9750>), (u'grant-full-control', <awscli.arguments.CLIArgument object at 0x1082b9790>), (u'grant-read', <awscli.arguments.CLIArgument object at 0x1082b97d0>), (u'grant-read-acp', <awscli.arguments.CLIArgument object at 0x1082b9810>), (u'grant-write', <awscli.arguments.CLIArgument object at 0x1082b9850>), (u'grant-write-acp', <awscli.arguments.CLIArgument object at 0x1082b9890>)])
2015-12-04 15:37:16,124 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event building-argument-table.s3api.create-bucket: calling handler <function add_streaming_output_arg at 0x107acab90>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,124 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event building-argument-table.s3api.create-bucket: calling handler <function add_cli_input_json at 0x107d1fed8>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,124 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event building-argument-table.s3api.create-bucket: calling handler <function unify_paging_params at 0x107bf1848>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,127 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event building-argument-table.s3api.create-bucket: calling handler <function add_generate_skeleton at 0x107d28398>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,127 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event before-building-argument-table-parser.s3api.create-bucket: calling handler <bound method CliInputJSONArgument.override_required_args of <awscli.customizations.cliinputjson.CliInputJSONArgument object at 0x1082b98d0>>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,127 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event before-building-argument-table-parser.s3api.create-bucket: calling handler <bound method GenerateCliSkeletonArgument.override_required_args of <awscli.customizations.generatecliskeleton.GenerateCliSkeletonArgument object at 0x1082b9910>>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,129 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event load-cli-arg.s3.create-bucket.acl: calling handler <function uri_param at 0x107ab3758>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,129 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event load-cli-arg.s3.create-bucket.bucket: calling handler <function uri_param at 0x107ab3758>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,129 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event process-cli-arg.s3.create-bucket: calling handler <awscli.argprocess.ParamShorthand object at 0x107d5bcd0>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,129 - MainThread - awscli.arguments - DEBUG - Unpacked value of u'bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3' for parameter "bucket": u'bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3'
2015-12-04 15:37:16,129 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event load-cli-arg.s3.create-bucket.create-bucket-configuration: calling handler <function uri_param at 0x107ab3758>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,129 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event load-cli-arg.s3.create-bucket.grant-full-control: calling handler <function uri_param at 0x107ab3758>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,129 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event load-cli-arg.s3.create-bucket.grant-read: calling handler <function uri_param at 0x107ab3758>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,129 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event load-cli-arg.s3.create-bucket.grant-read-acp: calling handler <function uri_param at 0x107ab3758>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,129 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event load-cli-arg.s3.create-bucket.grant-write: calling handler <function uri_param at 0x107ab3758>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,129 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event load-cli-arg.s3.create-bucket.grant-write-acp: calling handler <function uri_param at 0x107ab3758>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,130 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event load-cli-arg.s3.create-bucket.cli-input-json: calling handler <function uri_param at 0x107ab3758>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,130 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event load-cli-arg.s3.create-bucket.generate-cli-skeleton: calling handler <function uri_param at 0x107ab3758>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,130 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event calling-command.s3api.create-bucket: calling handler <bound method GenerateCliSkeletonArgument.generate_json_skeleton of <awscli.customizations.generatecliskeleton.GenerateCliSkeletonArgument object at 0x1082b9910>>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,130 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event calling-command.s3api.create-bucket: calling handler <bound method CliInputJSONArgument.add_to_call_parameters of <awscli.customizations.cliinputjson.CliInputJSONArgument object at 0x1082b98d0>>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,130 - MainThread - botocore.credentials - DEBUG - Looking for credentials via: env
2015-12-04 15:37:16,130 - MainThread - botocore.credentials - DEBUG - Looking for credentials via: assume-role
2015-12-04 15:37:16,130 - MainThread - botocore.credentials - DEBUG - Looking for credentials via: shared-credentials-file
2015-12-04 15:37:16,130 - MainThread - botocore.credentials - INFO - Found credentials in shared credentials file: ~/.aws/credentials
2015-12-04 15:37:16,132 - MainThread - botocore.client - DEBUG - Registering retry handlers for service: s3
2015-12-04 15:37:16,135 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event creating-client-class.s3: calling handler <function add_generate_presigned_post at 0x1077fc938>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,135 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event creating-client-class.s3: calling handler <function add_generate_presigned_url at 0x1077e98c0>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,181 - MainThread - botocore.endpoint - DEBUG - Setting s3 timeout as (60, 60)
2015-12-04 15:37:16,181 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event before-parameter-build.s3.CreateBucket: calling handler <function validate_bucket_name at 0x107813de8>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,184 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event before-call.s3.CreateBucket: calling handler <function add_expect_header at 0x1078142a8>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,184 - MainThread - botocore.endpoint - DEBUG - Making request for <botocore.model.OperationModel object at 0x1082d1490> (verify_ssl=True) with params: {'body': '', 'url': u'https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3', 'headers': {'User-Agent': 'aws-cli/1.9.9 Python/2.7.10 Darwin/14.5.0 botocore/1.3.9'}, 'query_string': {}, 'url_path': u'/bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3', 'method': u'PUT'}
2015-12-04 15:37:16,184 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event request-created.s3.CreateBucket: calling handler <bound method RequestSigner.handler of <botocore.signers.RequestSigner object at 0x1082fe550>>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,185 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event before-sign.s3.CreateBucket: calling handler <function fix_s3_host at 0x1076be758>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,185 - MainThread - botocore.utils - DEBUG - Checking for DNS compatible bucket for: https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3
2015-12-04 15:37:16,185 - MainThread - botocore.utils - DEBUG - URI updated to: https://bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3.s3.amazonaws.com/
2015-12-04 15:37:16,185 - MainThread - botocore.auth - DEBUG - Calculating signature using hmacv1 auth.
2015-12-04 15:37:16,186 - MainThread - botocore.auth - DEBUG - HTTP request method: PUT
2015-12-04 15:37:16,186 - MainThread - botocore.auth - DEBUG - StringToSign:
PUT


Fri, 04 Dec 2015 15:37:16 GMT
/bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3/
2015-12-04 15:37:16,191 - MainThread - botocore.endpoint - DEBUG - Sending http request: <PreparedRequest [PUT]>
2015-12-04 15:37:16,192 - MainThread - botocore.vendored.requests.packages.urllib3.connectionpool - INFO - Starting new HTTPS connection (1): bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3.s3.amazonaws.com
2015-12-04 15:37:17,280 - MainThread - botocore.vendored.requests.packages.urllib3.connectionpool - DEBUG - "PUT / HTTP/1.1" 200 0
2015-12-04 15:37:17,281 - MainThread - botocore.parsers - DEBUG - Response headers: {'content-length': '0', 'x-amz-id-2': 'OE2fJyBraV1BC2Fkzg6k52ModDDCw42Z+9X7Z2xvYuwAx5Z9mIGRrCA/WdVoyGRvzxvqui91qBQ=', 'server': 'AmazonS3', 'x-amz-request-id': '7F1144E54622C18C', 'location': '/bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3', 'date': 'Fri, 04 Dec 2015 15:37:18 GMT'}
2015-12-04 15:37:17,281 - MainThread - botocore.parsers - DEBUG - Response body:

2015-12-04 15:37:17,281 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event needs-retry.s3.CreateBucket: calling handler <botocore.retryhandler.RetryHandler object at 0x1082a20d0>
2015-12-04 15:37:17,282 - MainThread - botocore.retryhandler - DEBUG - No retry needed.
2015-12-04 15:37:17,282 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event after-call.s3.CreateBucket: calling handler <function enhance_error_msg at 0x107d1fc80>
2015-12-04 15:37:17,282 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event after-call.s3.CreateBucket: calling handler <awscli.errorhandler.ErrorHandler object at 0x107d5bd90>
2015-12-04 15:37:17,282 - MainThread - awscli.errorhandler - DEBUG - HTTP Response Code: 200
2015-12-04 15:37:17,283 - MainThread - awscli.formatter - DEBUG - RequestId: 7F1144E54622C18C
{
    "Location": "/bd354a50-2ec4-4b5c-b919-30f0581d65a3"
}

[kyleknap]

So I would recommend using aws s3 mb here to make your bucket. For the s3api create-bucket command, you need to specify a LocationConstraint to have the bucket exist in that location:

$ aws s3api create-bucket --bucket mybucketfoo6 --region eu-west-1 --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=eu-west-1 
{
    "Location": "http://mybucketfoo6.s3.amazonaws.com/"
}
$ aws s3api get-bucket-location --bucket mybucketfoo6
{
    "LocationConstraint": "eu-west-1"
}

I recommend using aws s3 mb because it autofills the LocationConstraint for you. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[timkendrick]

Yep, I've been using aws s3 mb since figuring this out.

I just thought I should probably report it, seeing as I ended up wasting far too long trying to figure out why the example in the documentation wasn't working for me – perhaps the documentation needs updating?

[kyleknap]

Makes sense. I will add an example to reflect that.

[timkendrick]

Great, thanks for the help!