Bash Script errors when assigning variable as output of AWS CLI command with parent-id/child-id inputs

Question

My script needs to get OU parent for an account, when I run corresponding aws cli on terminal, it works fine , I have

```
aws organizations list-parents --child-id  --query Parents[*].Id --output text
```

However when I use same in bash as below it does not assign the value, process nulls out. bash script has

```

for account in $(aws organizations list-accounts --query 'Accounts[].Id' --output text); do
       echo $account
       parent_ou=`aws organizations list-parents --child-id $account --query Parents[*].Id --output text
    echo $parent_ou`
```

Note it does print account correctly, so its only the parent_ou assignment not working.

Have a similar problem with another, that works on terminal but not within bash, note mocked parent_id

```
  b_ous = `aws organizations list-organization-units-for-parent --parent-id o_hhhhh_**** --query OrganizationalUnits[*].Id --output text`
```

The error is

```
 command "o_hhhhh_****" not found
```

I have tried using variable instead of hardcode value, its same error.

Any idea what maybe wrong with these variable assignments in bash?

Thanks in advance

Accepted Answer

Swap those backticks (`) for single quotes ('). Backticks try to execute the command within them, while single quotes just store the literal text.
Wrap the entire aws organizations command in $( ) for proper command substitution. It pipes the command output directly into the variable.
Assign the output directly to parent_ou within the for loop, like this:

```
for account in $(aws organizations list-accounts --query 'Accounts[].Id' --output text); do
  echo "$account"
  parent_ou=$(aws organizations list-parents --child-id "$account" --query Parents[*].Id --output text)
  echo "$parent_ou"
done
```

Consider using command chaining with | for even cleaner code

```
for account in $(aws organizations list-accounts --query 'Accounts[].Id' --output text); do
  echo "$account"
  parent_ou=$(aws organizations list-parents --child-id "$account" --query Parents[*].Id --output text | tr -d '
')
  echo "$parent_ou"
done
```

Answer

Hello,

Your script has 2 points to modify.
```
b_ous = `aws organizations list-organization-units-for-parent --parent-id o_hhhhh_**** --query OrganizationalUnits[*].Id --output text`
```

1. sub command is "list-organizational-units-for-parent"
```
aws organizations list-organizational-units-for-parent
```

2. list-organizational-units-for-parent --parent-id option should handle Root "r-" or OU  "ou-", not Organization "o-"
```
OPTIONS
       --parent-id (string)
          The unique identifier (ID) of the root or OU whose child OUs you
          want to list.

The regex pattern for a parent ID string requires one of the
          following:

o Root - A string that begins with "r-" followed by from 4 to 32
            lowercase letters or digits.

o Organizational unit (OU) - A string that begins with "ou-"
            followed by from 4 to 32 lowercase letters or digits (the ID of
            the root that the OU is in). This string is followed by a second
            "-" dash and from 8 to 32 additional lowercase letters or digits.
```

Answer

Hello.

I executed the shell script below using CloudShell and it was executed successfully.  
I can't reproduce the same error as you.  
Is it possible for you to share the entire shell script?  
```
#!/bin/bash

for account in $(aws organizations list-accounts --query 'Accounts[].Id' --output text); do
        echo $account
        parent_ou=`aws organizations list-parents --child-id $account --query Parents[*].Id --output text`
        echo $parent_ou
done
```

Bash Script errors when assigning variable as output of AWS CLI command with parent-id/child-id inputs

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