Aws-cli: aws s3 cp without recursive can produce a useless error message

[voltagex]

aws-cli/1.11.13 Python/3.5.2 Linux/4.4.0-1013-aws botocore/1.4.70

See https://twitter.com/lampholder/status/835777466685927424 (which is now one of the top results when googling the error message).

Invalid length for parameter Key, value: 0, valid range: 1-inf when you leave off --recursive is not a useful error message when it should either

• Remind you to use --recursive

or

• Act on only the files in the current working directory

[dstufft]

I can't reproduce this using awscli 1.11.178 and you seem to be quite a few versions behind. When I try to run a similar command I get:

upload failed: local/ to s3://bucket/remote/ [Errno 21] Is a directory: 'path/to/local/'

Could you try upgrading your version of aws-cli and see if you're able to still reproduce this error? Thanks!

[kyleknap]

Closing due to inactivity. Please open a new issue if you are able to give reproduction steps with the latest version of the CLI.

[williford]

I get that error message when trying to cp a directory to the root of the bucket with aws-cli/1.14.57 (Python/3.5.2 Linux/4.13.0-36-generic botocore/1.9.10).

To reproduce:

$aws s3 cp test-dir s3://bucket/ --storage-class STANDARD_IA
upload failed: test-dir/ to s3://bucket/ Parameter validation failed:
Invalid length for parameter Key, value: 0, valid range: 1-inf

If a non-root directory is given, I get the error:

upload failed: test-dir/ to s3://bucket/path [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/absolute/path/to/test-dir/'

Both error messages should indicate that directories are omitted and that '--recursive' should be used. I suggest:

upload failed: test-dir/ to s3://bucket/path [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/absolute/path/to/test-dir/' (requires '--recursive')

[cblanto7]

getting this bug as well using aws-cli/1.14.9 Python/2.7.13 Linux/4.9.85-38.58.amzn1.x86_64 botocore/1.8.13 and just as the original poster suggested, use of --recursive fixes it and it works normally.

aws s3 cp "snapshot/" s3://juniper-backup-bucket this only outputs this error message: Invalid length for parameter Key, value: 0, valid range: 1-inf

aws s3 cp "snapshot/" s3://juniper-backup-bucket --recursive this one works as desired and copies the directory over to my bucket.

[artjomsimon]

Please reopen. As a new AWS user, running into that error and googling the error message leads users to this ticket.
This Developer Experience can be optimized a lot.

[vdemario]

I've just ran into this error in a brand new environment on CircleCI.

$ aws --version
aws-cli/1.15.79 Python/3.7.0 Linux/4.4.0-130-generic botocore/1.10.78

The base image is circleci/python:3.7, this is the full config, with a few paths changed:

    docker:
      - image: circleci/python:3.7
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run:
          name: Install awscli
          command: sudo pip install awscli
      - run:
          name: Configure awscli
          command: |
            aws configure set aws_access_key_id $AWS_ACCESS_KEY
            aws configure set aws_secret_access_key $AWS_SECRET_KEY
            aws configure set region us-east-2
      - run:
          name: Deploy
          command: aws s3 cp website/public s3://mybucket

I ssh'd into this environment, the dir path was valid and the aws s3 cp command failed with

upload failed: (redacted) Parameter validation failed:
Invalid length for parameter Key, value: 0, valid range: 1-inf
Exited with code 1

Running the command again with --recursive succeeded. Since I'm running pip install on a brand new environment I suppose this is the latest version of awscli. This should be more than enough to reproduce the error, please reopen.

[williford]

I think @kyleknap wants a new issue to be opened if this is ever going to be fixed.

[nicbou]

I found this GitHub ticket while googling the error message I got. I agree that it's completely useless. You really need to Google the message to even get an idea of what's wrong.

[MarcoLotz]

The default that comes on

brew install awscli

provides the not really descriptive error described above.

[ghost]

I got the same error while trying to run an s3 cp with the source being a local directory which was empty. I was accidental pointing at the wrong dir but the error message was non descriptive.

[naikus]

I got this error because i wasn't using --recursive option:

download failed: s3://test/platfom/utterances/ to lib/conversation/utterances/ [Errno 20] Not a directory: '/opt/bot/lib/conversation/utterances/.F11a5Fae' -> '/opt/bot/lib/conversation/utterances/'