Suppress all output to console

[SenseiJoe]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. I'm always frustrated when I do "az --version | Out-Null" or any version of this syntax where I'm trying to put the version information into a variable. I always get

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Describe the solution you'd like If I pipe to Out-Null there is no console output.

My goal is control if and when I need to upgrade. if something is out of date I ask the user if they want to upgrade. My profile script checks the version information of many modules including az cli. when I do $v = az --version | Out-Null, most of it works but I still get that header on the console.

Describe alternatives you've considered

$v = az --version --output none, Gives me the same header Even tried $v = az --version --output none | Out-Null, Gets the same header

Additional context I'd like to see the ability to check individual version numbers of modules & main az version # only or something that just answers the question of needing an upgrade az --needupgrade

OR

az --version --name azure-cli PS> 2.20.0

az --version --name azure-devops PS> 0.18.0

[jiasli]

--output none only works for stdout . These survey lines

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are written to stderr which can be disabled with 2> $null:

> az --version > $null 2> $null
>

az --version is only designed for better human readability. To only check the version, you may use az version which outputs a JSON:

> az version
{
  "azure-cli": "2.19.1",
  "azure-cli-core": "2.19.1",
  "azure-cli-telemetry": "1.0.6",
  "extensions": {
    "account": "0.2.1",
    "support": "1.0.2"
  }
}

As for

az --needupgrade

perhaps we can add a programmatic way to az version to detect if update is available? Something like:

> az version --check-upgrade
{
  "azure-cli": "2.19.1*",
  "azure-cli-core": "2.19.1*",
  "azure-cli-telemetry": "1.0.6",
  "extensions": {
    "account": "0.2.1",
    "support": "1.0.2"
  }
}

or

> az version --latest
{
  "azure-cli": "2.20.0",
  "azure-cli-core": "2.20.0",
  "azure-cli-telemetry": "1.0.6",
  "extensions": {
    "account": "0.2.1",
    "support": "1.0.2"
  }
}

@fengzhou-msft

[SenseiJoe]

I like the --latest option but... I still like having an option that tells me if the core or extension needs updating. returning true of false. something like az version --name azure-cli --upgrade or az version --name azure-cli --islatest

You could apply that to any module or extension

this way I could write if (az version --name azure-cli --upgrade) ) { az upgrade }

You suggestion for suppression output works, so I can work around that.

Thanks for the work you do and your help. Joe

[jiasli]

@SenseiJoe, glad to know it works for you!

Perhaps we can make something like

> az version --check-upgrade
{
  "azure-cli": true,
  "azure-cli-core": true,
  "azure-cli-telemetry": false,
  "extensions": {}
}

Then you may query the result with --query '\"azure-cli\"' (pay attention to Quoting issues with PowerShell).

Indeed, comparing version doesn't seem like a good option to me, as 2.10.0 can actually be smaller than 2.9.0 due to string comparison.

[SenseiJoe]

Thanks, I think that will work just fine. (as long as that banner doesn't show up) ;)

[fengzhou-msft]

@SenseiJoe It looks like you may be interested in the auto-upgrade feature. You can enable it by running: az config set auto-upgrade.enable=yes auto-upgrade.prompt=no Azure CLI will then periodically check for new versions and auto-upgrade when a command finishes running.