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

[Solutionpoint-blip]

Describe the bug

When using Azure CLI on macOS with zsh, commands like az account set fail due to HTML-encoded characters like < and > being interpreted literally.

Also, even after successful login and selecting the correct subscription, Terraform fails to detect the subscription ID, and Azure CLI shows:

Related command

az login
az account list
az account set --subscription "<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>"

Errors

zsh: no such file or directory: SUBSCRIPTION_ID
The subscription of '<subscription_id>' doesn't exist in cloud 'AzureCloud'.
zsh: missing end of string

Issue script & Debug output

az login --debug
az account set --subscription "" --debug

Expected behavior

Azure CLI should correctly parse and set the subscription ID. HTML-encoded characters should not appear in the terminal. Terraform should be able to detect the subscription ID from the Azure CLI session.

Environment Summary

az --version

Additional context

Using macOS with zsh. Commands copied from web sources seem to include HTML-encoded characters like < instead of <, which causes parsing issues.

[yonzhan]

Thank you for opening this issue, we will look into it.

[Solutionpoint-blip]

Hi @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

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[jiasli]

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"