The az alias is an extension point allows user to define their own command alias based on existing commands. The alias will enable scenarios which improve the usability of azure cli.
The definition of the aliases could be a configuration file in a uesr friendly format, like yaml or ini
An inspiration of the alias system is git alias
- Text based user defined alias configuration placed under .azure folder.
- Templated base alias definition
- Encourage personalization and sharing configuraitons.
- Find a proper script/template language for the alias definition. Candidats: bash script, go template, python native.
- Find a proper mechanism to resolve conflict and name collusion.
- Performance.
Many azure cli commands have long names. For example, to create a diagnostic setting users need to type az monitor diagnostic-setting create. To shorten the command, user can define such alias in the alias configuration:
[alias]
az mn diag = az monitor diagnostic-setting create
$ az mn diag -n new_setting --resource <...>
Azure CLI commands don't support positional arguments. However for some commands, the positional arguments are preferable. An alias template would allow user to transform a command into supporting positional arguments.
[alias]
az cp {src_uri} {dst_url} = az storage blob copy start-batch --source {src_uri} --destination {dst_uri}
$ az cp http://account1.blob.windows.net/source http://account2.blob.windows.net/dest
There are situations where a well defined environment variable is repeatedly used in a command.
[alias]
# Effect: all the vm created will have the 'owner' tag
az myvm *=az vm create * --tags owner={$USER}
Transform a user input and fill in the existing command parameters can enable user to build a more intuitive form of existing command.
[alias]
az ls {path}=az storage blob list --account-name {path split '://' index 0} --contaienr {path split '://' index 1}
$ az ls my_storage_acct://targer_container
The script/template language used here to parse argument is a implementation detailed. In above example, these are pseudo language.
Allows user to define an alias as a sequence of commands.
[alias]
# SSH into vm
az ssh {vm}= >>> EOL
name=$(az vm show -n troyperf02 -g troy-perf-permanent -otsv --query 'osProfile.adminUsername')
ip=$(az vm list-ip-addresses -n {vm} --query '[0].virtualMachine.network.publicIpAddresses[0].ipAddress' -otsv)
ssh {name}@{ip}
EOL
$ az ssh my_vm
[alias]
# Retieve storage account and name and saved to environment variable
az storage account save {acct}= >>> EOL
rg=$(az storage account list -otsv --query '[].{Name:name, rg:resourceGroup}' | grep trdai | cut -f2)
key=$(az storage account keys list -n {acct} -g {rg} --query [0].value)
eval export AZURE_STORAGE_ACCOUNT={acct}
eval export AZURE_STORAGE_KEY={key}
EOL
$ az storage account save my_storage_account
$ az storage container list