Azure CLI not using local configuration

[adriancuadrado]

Describe the bug

Azure CLI doesn't use local configuration set with az config set --local

Command Name
az configure

To Reproduce:

Steps to reproduce the behavior. Note that argument values have been redacted, as they may contain sensitive information.

mkdir folder
cd folder
az config set core.output=json
az config set --local core.output=table
az account list

Expected Behavior

The last command should honor the local configuration and use the table output format instead of json.

Environment Summary

Linux-5.10.102.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2-x86_64-with-debian-bullseye-sid, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Python 3.6.10
Installer: DEB

azure-cli 2.32.0 *

Extensions:
account 0.2.1
interactive 0.4.5

Dependencies:
msal 1.16.0
azure-mgmt-resource 20.0.0

Additional Context

[adriancuadrado]

$ az config get core.output
{
  "name": "output",
  "source": "/home/adrian/.azure/config",
  "value": "json"
}

$ az config get --local core.output
{
  "name": "output",
  "source": "/home/adrian/azure_config_tutorial/folder/.azure/config",
  "value": "table"
}

I have the impression that I have to explicity indicate that I want to use the local configuration somehow, but I couldn't find anything in the documentation.

[yonzhan]

@jiasli for awareness

[jiasli]

This is an interesting discovery.

The problem is not with az config. I run az config set --local core.output=table and the .azure/config file is created as expected:

It's just the config core.output=table doesn't take effect.

I checked the source code in Knack:

https://github.com/microsoft/knack/blob/e496c9590792572e680cb3ec959db175d9ba85dd/knack/config.py#L29

    def __init__(self, config_dir=None, config_env_var_prefix=None, config_file_name=None, use_local_config=None):

Local config never works because use_local_config by default is None(False).

The doc doesn't mention local config as well: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/azure-cli-configuration

I will certainly revisit this topic when time permits.

Workaround

The recommended way to separate the execution environment is using AZURE_CONFIG_DIR env var as shown in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/use-cli-effectively#concurrent-builds

[jiasli]

According to Knack's code:

https://github.com/microsoft/knack/blob/60497843f367e1b580ef8a95b0cab1598dc684f2/knack/commands.py#L91-L95

        defaults_section = self.cli_ctx.config.defaults_section_name
        use_local_config_original = self.cli_ctx.config.use_local_config
        self.cli_ctx.config.set_to_use_local_config(True)
        config_value = self.cli_ctx.config.get(defaults_section, default_key, None)
        self.cli_ctx.config.set_to_use_local_config(use_local_config_original)

Only the defaults section works for local config. Other config sections such as core never work with local config.