Setup environment and run

Setup python

Setup build env

For Linux users, setup python3 build tools would avoid other unseen installation issues

  apt install python3-dev build-essential # Ubuntu, Debian 
  yum install python3-devel # Centos

Install python

This tool is compatible with python versions >=3.8 and <=3.12. You can use an existing python or install a new one by the following ways:

For Windows users: You can download and run full installer from Python Download.
For Linux users: You can install python from Package Manager or build a stable release from source code

After installation, you can run the following commands to check the version:

For Windows users: You can run:
```
  C:\Users\{xxxx}\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python3{xxxx}\python --version
```
C:\Users{xxxx}\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python3{xxxx} is the python installation path.
For Linux users:
```
  python --version
```
You can also specify the version number when you have multiple versions installed like this:
```
  python3.12 --version
```

Setup a virtual environment

Please create a new virtual environment for Azure CLI development to isolate from the system environment.

You can run the following command to create a new virtual environment:

For Windows users:

  C:\Users\{xxxx}\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python3{xxxx}\python -m venv {some path}\{venv name}

For Linux users:

  python3.12 -m venv {some path}/{venv name}

Active existing virtual environment

You should always activate the virtual environment for azure-cli development. When a virtual environment is activated, the python command will always be the python that created this virtual environment.

For Windows users:
- Powershell
```
  {some path}\{venv name}\Scripts\Activate.ps1
```
- Command Prompt Command Prompt {some path}\{venv name}\Scripts\activate.bat

For Linux users:

  source {some path}/{venv name}/bin/activate

Install tools for azure-cli development

Install aaz-dev-tools

pip install aaz-dev

Code repos setup

Fork and clone repos

aaz-dev-tools relies on the following repos, Please Fork these repos in your GitHub account and Clone them in your local disk. After clone, you can add upstream for every repo in your local clone by using git remote add upstream.

Azure CLI code repos:
- Azure CLI: Before start to the development task, you should always sync the code in the dev branch of upstream(Azure/Azure-cli). If your commands will be generated to azure-cli repo, you should checkout a new branch with feature- prefix.
- Azure CLI Extension: If your commands will be generated to azure-cli-extension repo, you should sync the code in the main branch of upstream(Azure/Azure-cli-extensions), and checkout a new branch with feature- prefix.
AAZ command models repo:
- AAZ: This repo is used to upload the command models generated. Before start to the development task, you should always sync the change in the main branch of upstream, and checkout a new branch with feature- prefix.
Azure OpenAPI Specs repos:
- azure-rest-api-specs
- azure-rest-api-specs-pr

Use azdev setup to setup azure-cli development environment

You should always run the following command every time you sync azure-cli code of upstream.

azdev setup --cli {path to azure-cli} --repo {path to azure-cli-extensions}

Run aaz-dev-tools

Quick start

The following command will start a backend service and open a web page in the browser.

aaz-dev run --cli-path {path to azure-cli} --cli-extension-path {path to azure-cli-extensions} --swagger-path {path to azure-rest-api-specs or azure-rest-api-specs-pr} --aaz-path {path to aaz}

quick start

Other arguments

-p, --port: This argument can specify the port to bind.
-w, --workspaces-path: This argument can specify the folder to save workspaces.

Use swagger files which is not in azure-rest-api-specs repos

You can use the following arguments to specify swagger files for a specific resource provider:

--swagger-module-path, --sm
-m, --module

aaz-dev run --cli-path {path to azure-cli} --cli-extension-path {path to azure-cli-extensions} --aaz-path {path to aaz} --swagger-module-path {path to swagger files in module level} --module {the name of module}

start with swagger module path

In this article