aws_init Purpose: For automatically starting an AWS instance and, optionally, running a command in a screen on the instance Starting a server: $ cd aws_init $ python >>> import startami >>> image = 'ubuntu1004x64' >>> instancetype = 'm1.large' >>> accesskey = 'blahblahblahmyaccesskey' >>> secretkey = 'blahblahblahmysecretkey' >>> pkname = 'thenameofmyprivatekey' >>> >>> startami.startami(image, instancetype, accesskey, secretkey, pkname) This will only start up the instance and return a (username, DNSname) tuple for remote access to the server. Starting a server and installing a set of software $ cd aws_init $ python >>> import startami >>> image = 'ubuntu1010x64' >>> instancetype = 'm1.large' >>> accesskey = 'blahblahblahmyaccesskey' >>> secretkey = 'blahblahblahmysecretkey' >>> pkname = 'thenameofmyprivatekey' >>> gitUrl = 'git://github.com/kand/aws_instance_builder.git >>> softwareList = '[zsh]' >>> pipelineUrl = 'http://someurl.com' >>> webserverPort = 80 >>> >>> startami.startAndRun(image, instancetype, accesskey, secretkey, ... pkname, gitUrl, softwareList, pipelineUrl, webserverPort) This will start an instance, checkout the git repository given, and run the webserver script, passing it the softwareList and pipelineUrl as arguments. This command is executed remotely over an SSH connection and run in a detached screen.A (username, DNSname) tuple for remote access is returned. Starting a server from the command line: $ cd aws_init $ python test_start.py ubuntu1010x64 m1.large blahblahblahmyaccesskey blahblahblahmysecretkey git://github.com/kand/aws_instance_builder.git [zsh] http://someurl.com 80