az login and az account set fail with HTML-encoded characters and subscription not found #32324

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1. SOLUTION POINT (Solutionpoint-blip)

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   bugThis issue requires a change to an existing behavior in the product in order to be resolved.This issue requires a change to an existing behavior in the product in order to be resolved.

   on Oct 26, 2025
2. yonzhan commented on Oct 26, 2025

   

   Yong Zhang (yonzhan)

   on Oct 26, 2025

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   Thank you for opening this issue, we will look into it.
3. microsoft-github-policy-service

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   customer-reportedIssues that are reported by GitHub users external to the Azure organization.Issues that are reported by GitHub users external to the Azure organization.

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   ARMaz resource/group/lock/tag/deployment/policy/managementapp/account management-groupaz resource/group/lock/tag/deployment/policy/managementapp/account management-group

   on Oct 26, 2025
4. microsoft-github-policy-service

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   Jiashuo Li (jiasli)

   on Oct 26, 2025
5. microsoft-github-policy-service

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   Azure CLI TeamThe command of the issue is owned by Azure CLI teamThe command of the issue is owned by Azure CLI team

   questionThe issue doesn't require a change to the product in order to be resolved. Most issues start as thatThe issue doesn't require a change to the product in order to be resolved. Most issues start as that

   Accountaz login/accountaz login/account

   on Oct 26, 2025
6. Yong Zhang (yonzhan)

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   bugThis issue requires a change to an existing behavior in the product in order to be resolved.This issue requires a change to an existing behavior in the product in order to be resolved.

   on Oct 26, 2025
7. Yong Zhang (yonzhan)

   added this to the Backlog milestone on Oct 26, 2025
8. Solutionpoint-blip commented on Oct 26, 2025

   

   SOLUTION POINT (Solutionpoint-blip)

   on Oct 26, 2025

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   Hi Yong Zhang (@yonzhan) and Azure CLI team,
   Thank you for acknowledging the issue.
   I’m currently using macOS with the zsh shell, and I’ve noticed that when copying commands from web sources or documentation, they often include HTML-encoded characters like <SUBSCRIPTION_ID> instead of the correct <SUBSCRIPTION_ID>. This causes parsing errors in both zsh and Terraform, especially when setting environment variables or executing CLI commands.
   For example:
   ShellSUB="<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>" # ❌ FailsSUB="<SUBSC
   SUB="<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>" # ❌ Fails
   SUB="<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>" # ✅ Works correctly

   This behavior leads to failures in commands such as az account set --subscription, which expects a properly formatted subscription ID.
   Suggestion:

   Add a note in the documentation warning users about HTML encoding issues when copying commands.
   Sanitize CLI examples to ensure they are copy-paste friendly across different environments.

   Environment details:

   Azure CLI: 2.78.0
   Python: 3.13.9
   Tenant: D P Printing And Binding
   Subscription: Azure subscription 1

   Please let me know if you need any logs or further reproduction steps. I’ll be happy to assist.
   Thanks again!
   – Solutionpoint-blip

   Let me know if you'd like to include screenshots or logs with this comment.
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9. jiasli commented on Oct 29, 2025

   

   Jiashuo Li (jiasli)

   on Oct 29, 2025

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   The < and > in your comment are actually converted to < and > by GitHub markdown:

   I’m currently using macOS with the zsh shell, and I’ve noticed that when copying commands from web sources or documentation, they often include HTML-encoded characters like &lt;SUBSCRIPTION_ID&gt; instead of the correct <SUBSCRIPTION_ID>. This causes parsing errors in both zsh and Terraform, especially when setting environment variables or executing CLI commands.
   For example:
   ShellSUB="&lt;SUBSCRIPTION_ID&gt;"  # ❌ FailsSUB="<SUBSC
   SUB="&lt;SUBSCRIPTION_ID&gt;"  # ❌ Fails
   SUB="<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>"        # ✅ Works correctly
   

   

   Commands copied from web sources seem to include HTML-encoded characters like < instead of <

   Could you share some example web sources? This doesn't seem to happen on Windows or Linux.

   Also, the < and > are merely placeholders meaning the string <SUBSCRIPTION_ID> should be replaced by a real subscription ID or name, so a real command should look like

   az account set --subscription "2b476f58-53d6-40e7-b051-f4ec1fcad3d5"
   az account set --subscription "Azure subscription 1"
   
10. Aditya Pujara (a0x1ab)

    added

    act-identity-squad

    on Apr 1, 2026