# Copy All Files In S3 Bucket To Local With Aws Cli

The AWS CLI makes working with files in S3 very easy. However, the file globbing available on most Unix/Linux systems is not quite as easy to use with the AWS CLI. S3 doesn’t have folders, but it does use the concept of folders by using the “/” character in S3 object keys as a folder delimiter (Also known as prefixes).

To copy all objects in an S3 bucket to your local machine simply use the below command with --recursive option.
```
aws s3 cp --recursive

``` 


For example 
```
aws s3 cp s3://temp-bucket/ ./ --recursive
``` 
will copy all files from the “temp-bucket" bucket to the current working directory on your local machine. If there are folders represented in the object keys (keys containing “/” characters), they will be downloaded as separate directories in the target location.

The command *aws s3 cp s3://temp-bucket/folder1/ ./ --recursive* is almost the same as the one above, but this command will only copy files from “folder1” folder (objects with keys starting with “folder1/”).

For using wildcards and patterns to copy only certain files, refer to [Using Wildcards with AWS CLI](https://sysadmindiary.co.uk/index.php/2020/01/06/using-unix-wildcards-with-aws-s3-aws-cli/) on how to correctly use the *--include* and *--exclude* options.