The DescribeImages operation returns information about AMIs, AKIs, and ARIs available to the user. Information returned includes image type, product codes, architecture, and kernel and RAM disk IDs. Images available to the user include public images available for any user to launch, private images owned by the user making the request, and private images owned by other users for which the user has explicit launch permissions.

Launch permissions fall into three categories:

The list of AMIs returned can be modified by specifying AMI IDs, AMI owners, or users with launch permissions. If no options are specified, Amazon EC2 returns all AMIs for which the user has launch permissions.

If you specify one or more AMI IDs, only AMIs that have the specified IDs are returned. If you specify an invalid AMI ID, a fault is returned. If you specify an AMI ID for which you do not have access, it will not be included in the returned results.

If you specify one or more AMI owners, only AMIs from the specified owners and for which you have access are returned. The results can include the account IDs of the specified owners, amazon for AMIs owned by Amazon or self for AMIs that you own.

If you specify a list of executable users, only users that have launch permissions for the AMIs are returned. You can specify account IDs (if you own the AMI(s)), self for AMIs for which you own or have explicit permissions, or all for public AMIs.

	Note
	Deregistered images are included in the returned results for an unspecified interval after deregistration.

<DescribeImages xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2008-12-01">
  <executableBySet>
    <item>
      <user>all</user>
    </item>
  </executableBySet>
  <ownersSet />
  <imagesSet>
    <item>
      <imageId>ami-be3adfd7</imageId>
    </item>
  </imagesSet>
</DescribeImages>

<DescribeImagesResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2008-12-01">
  <imagesSet>
    <item>
      <imageId>ami-be3adfd7</imageId>
      <imageLocation>ec2-public-images/fedora-8-i386-base-v1.04.manifest.xml
      </imageLocation>
      <imageState>available</imageState>
      <imageOwnerId>206029621532</imageOwnerId>
      <isPublic>false</isPublic>
      <architecture>i386</architecture>
      <imageType>machine</imageType>
      <kernelId>aki-4438dd2d</kernelId>
      <ramdiskId>ari-4538dd2c</ramdiskId>
    </item>
  </imagesSet>
</DescribeImagesResponse>