How to Host a Static Website on Amazon S3 Using AWS CLI

Prerequisites:

AWS CLI installed and configured with your AWS credentials and default region.
Your static website files (e.g., index.html, style.css) ready locally.

Step 1: Create an S3 Bucket

Run this command to create a new bucket. Replace my-static-site-bucket with a unique bucket name:

aws s3 mb s3://my-static-site-bucket

Step 2: Enable Static Website Hosting on the Bucket

Use this command to configure your bucket for static website hosting:

aws s3 website s3://my-static-site-bucket/ --index-document index.html --error-document error.html

(You can skip --error-document or replace with your actual error page)

Step 3: Upload Your Website Files to the Bucket

Upload all your local files (e.g., from a folder website-files/) to the bucket:

aws s3 sync ./website-files/ s3://my-static-site-bucket/

This command uploads everything in the local website-files directory to your bucket.

Step 4: Set Bucket Policy to Make Files Public

To allow everyone to read your website files, create a JSON file policy.json with this content (replace my-static-site-bucket):

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [{
    "Sid": "PublicReadGetObject",
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Principal": "*",
    "Action": "s3:GetObject",
    "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-static-site-bucket/*"
  }]
}

Apply the policy with this command:

aws s3api put-bucket-policy --bucket my-static-site-bucket --policy file://policy.json

Step 5: Access Your Website

Your static site will be accessible at this URL (adjust region as needed):

http://my-static-site-bucket.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com

You can check the exact website endpoint URL by running:

aws s3api get-bucket-website --bucket my-static-site-bucket

Bonus: Delete the Bucket and Contents (If Needed)

To remove all files and delete the bucket:

aws s3 rm s3://my-static-site-bucket --recursive
aws s3 rb s3://my-static-site-bucket

Summary

Step	AWS CLI Command
Create Bucket	`aws s3 mb s3://my-static-site-bucket`
Enable Website Hosting	`aws s3 website s3://my-static-site-bucket/ --index-document index.html --error-document error.html`
Upload Website Files	`aws s3 sync ./website-files/ s3://my-static-site-bucket/`
Apply Public Read Policy	`aws s3api put-bucket-policy --bucket my-static-site-bucket --policy file://policy.json`
Get Website Configuration	`aws s3api get-bucket-website --bucket my-static-site-bucket`