DescribeImages

The DescribeImages operation returns information about AMIs available for use by the user making the request. This includes both public AMIs (those available for any user to launch) and private images (those available for launch by the image owner only).

An optional list of AMI IDs may be provided to request information for those AMIs only. If no AMI IDs are provided, information of all relevant AMIs will be returned. If an image is specified that does not exist a fault is returned. If an image is specified that exists but is not owned by the user making the request, then that image will not be included in the returned results.

Deregistered images will be included in the returned results for an unspecified interval subsequent to deregistration.

The following table describes the request parameters for DescribeImages. Parameter names are case sensitive.

Element NameDefinitionRequired?Type
imageSet AMI IDs to describe. Yes (but may be empty)xsd:string[]

The following table describes the default response tags included in DescribeImages responses.

Element NameDefinitionType
imagesSet A list of image descriptions ec2:DescribeImagesResponseItemType[]
<DescribeImages xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2007-01-19">
  <imagesSet>
    <item>
      <imageId>ami-61a54008</imageId>
    </item>
  </imagesSet>
</DescribeImages></SOAP-ENV:Body></SOAP-ENV:Envelope>
<DescribeImagesResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2007-01-19">
  <imagesSet>
    <item>
      <imageId>ami-61a54008</imageId>
      <imageLocation>aes-ttylinux/image.manifest</imageLocation>
      <imageState>available</imageState>
      <imageOwnerId>UYY3TLBUXIEON5NQVUUX6OMPWBZIQNFM</imageOwnerId>
      <isPublic>false</isPublic>
    </item>
  </imagesSet>
</DescribeImagesResponse>