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The Azure CLI uses JSON as its default output format, but offers other formats. Use the
--output
(
--out
or
-o
) parameter
to format CLI output. The argument values and types of output are:
--output
Description
The following example displays the list of virtual machines in your subscriptions in the default JSON format.
az vm list --output json
The following output has some fields omitted for brevity, and identifying information replaced.
"availabilitySet": null,
"diagnosticsProfile": null,
"hardwareProfile": {
"vmSize": "Standard_DS1"
"id": "/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/DEMORG1/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/DemoVM010",
"instanceView": null,
"licenseType": null,
"location": "westus",
"name": "DemoVM010",
"networkProfile": {
"networkInterfaces": [
"id": "/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/demorg1/providers/Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/DemoVM010VMNic",
"primary": null,
"resourceGroup": "demorg1"
The yaml format prints output as YAML, a plain-text data serialization format. YAML tends to be easier to read than JSON, and easily maps to
that format. Some applications and CLI commands take YAML as configuration input, instead of JSON.
az vm list --out yaml
The following output has some fields omitted for brevity, and identifying information replaced.
- availabilitySet: null
diagnosticsProfile: null
hardwareProfile:
vmSize: Standard_DS1_v2
id: /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/DEMORG1/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/DemoVM010
identity: null
instanceView: null
licenseType: null
location: westus
name: ExampleVM1
networkProfile:
networkInterfaces:
- id: /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/DemoRG1/providers/Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/DemoVM010Nic
primary: null
resourceGroup: DemoRG1
The table format prints output as an ASCII table, making it easy to read and scan. Nested objects aren't included in table output, but can still be filtered as part of a query. Some fields aren't included in the table, so this format is best when you want a quick, human-searchable overview of data.
az vm list --out table
Name ResourceGroup Location
----------- --------------- ----------
DemoVM010 DEMORG1 westus
demovm212 DEMORG1 westus
demovm213 DEMORG1 westus
KBDemo001VM RGDEMO001 westus
KBDemo020 RGDEMO001 westus
You can use the --query parameter to customize the properties and columns you want to show in the list output. The following example shows how to select just the VM Name and the Resource Group Name in the list command.
az vm list --query "[].{resource:resourceGroup, name:name}" -o table
Resource Name
---------- -----------
DEMORG1 DemoVM010
DEMORG1 demovm212
DEMORG1 demovm213
RGDEMO001 KBDemo001VM
RGDEMO001 KBDemo020
Some keys are not printed in the table view by default. These are id, type, and etag. If you need to see these
in your output, you can use the JMESPath re-keying feature to change the key name and avoid filtering.
az vm list --query "[].{objectID:id}" -o table
For more about using queries to filter data, see Use JMESPath queries with Azure CLI.
The tsv output format returns tab- and newline-separated values without additional formatting, keys, or other symbols. This format makes it easy to consume the output into other commands and tools that need to process the text in some form. Like the table format, tsv doesn't print nested objects.
Using the preceding example with the tsv option outputs the tab-separated result.
az vm list --out tsv
None None /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/DEMORG1/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/DemoVM010 None None westus DemoVM010 None Succeeded DEMORG1 None Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines cbd56d9b-9340-44bc-a722-25f15b578444
None None /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/DEMORG1/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/demovm212 None None westus demovm212 None Succeeded DEMORG1 None Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines 4bdac85d-c2f7-410f-9907-ca7921d930b4
None None /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/DEMORG1/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/demovm213 None None westus demovm213 None Succeeded DEMORG1 None Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines 2131c664-221a-4b7f-9653-f6d542fbfa34
None None /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/RGDEMO001/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/KBDemo001VM None None westus KBDemo001VM None Succeeded RGDEMO001 None Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines 14e74761-c17e-4530-a7be-9e4ff06ea74b
None None /subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/RGDEMO001/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/KBDemo020 None None westus KBDemo020 None Succeeded RGDEMO001 None Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines 36baa9-9b80-48a8-b4a9-854c7a858ece
One restriction of the TSV output format is that there isn't a guarantee on output ordering. The CLI makes a best effort to preserve ordering by sorting keys in the response JSON alphabetically,
and then printing their values in order for TSV output. This isn't a guarantee that the order is always identical though, since the Azure service response format may change.
In order to enforce consistent ordering, you'll need to use the --query parameter and the multiselect list format. When a CLI command returns a single
JSON dictionary, use the general format [key1, key2, ..., keyN] to force a key order. For CLI commands which return an array, use the general format [].[key1, key2, ..., keyN] to order column values.
For example, to order the information displayed above by ID, location, resource group, and VM name:
az vm list --out tsv --query '[].[id, location, resourceGroup, name]'
/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/DEMORG1/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/DemoVM010 westus DEMORG1 DemoVM010
/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/DEMORG1/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/demovm212 westus DEMORG1 demovm212
/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/DEMORG1/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/demovm213 westus DEMORG1 demovm213
/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/RGDEMO001/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/KBDemo001VM westus RGDEMO001 KBDemo001VM
/subscriptions/.../resourceGroups/RGDEMO001/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/KBDemo020 westus RGDEMO001 KBDemo020
The next example shows how tsv output can be piped to other commands in bash. The query is used to filter output and force ordering, grep selects items that have text "RGD" in them, then the cut
command selects the fourth field to show the name of the VM in output.
az vm list --out tsv --query '[].[id, location, resourceGroup, name]' | grep RGD | cut -f4
KBDemo001VM
KBDemo020
Use the az config set command to set up your environment and establish default settings for output formats. The default output format is json.
az config set core.output=<format>
Welcome to the Azure CLI! This command will guide you through logging in and setting some default values.
Your settings can be found at /home/defaultuser/.azure/config
Your current configuration is as follows:
Do you wish to change your settings? (y/N): y
What default output format would you like?
[1] json - JSON formatted output that most closely matches API responses.
[2] jsonc - Colored JSON formatted output that most closely matches API responses.
[3] table - Human-readable output format.
[4] tsv - Tab- and Newline-delimited. Great for GREP, AWK, etc.
[5] yaml - YAML formatted output. An alternative to JSON. Great for configuration files.
[6] yamlc - Colored YAML formatted output. An alternative to JSON. Great for configuration files.
[7] none - No output, except for errors and warnings.
Please enter a choice [1]:
See also
Azure CLI configuration
How to query Azure CLI command output
