az alias extension broken due to MarkUpSafe version increase

[MattoHopkins]

This is autogenerated. Please review and update as needed.

Describe the bug

AZ alias extension no longer works due to the removal of soft_unicode from latest markupsafe version.
aws/aws-sam-cli#3661 <- similar issue, different app

Command Name
az alias list

Errors:

'alias' is misspelled or not recognized by the system.
Unable to load extension 'alias: cannot import name 'soft_unicode' from 'markupsafe' (/Users/matthewhopkins/.azure/cliextensions/alias/markupsafe/__init__.py)'. Use --debug for more information.

To Reproduce:

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

• Put any pre-requisite steps here...
• az alias list

Expected Behavior

Environment Summary

macOS-12.3.1-x86_64-i386-64bit, Darwin 21.4.0
Python 3.10.4
Installer: HOMEBREW

azure-cli 2.37.0

Extensions:
alias 0.5.2
account 0.2.3

Dependencies:
msal 1.18.0b1
azure-mgmt-resource 21.1.0b1

Additional Context

[yonzhan]

alias

[KaiWalter]

I also had the error Unable to load extension 'alias: cannot import name 'soft_unicode' from 'markupsafe' (/home/kai/.azure/cliextensions/alias/markupsafe/__init__.py)'. Use --debug for more information. 'alias' is misspelled or not recognized by the system.

with

azure-cli                         2.51.0

core                              2.51.0
telemetry                          1.1.0

Extensions:
alias                              0.5.2

as a quick fix I created and applied this script

#!/bin/bash
set -e
extpath=`az extension list --query "[?name=='alias'].path" -o tsv`
version=2.0.1
wget https://github.com/pallets/markupsafe/archive/refs/tags/$version.tar.gz -O ~/markupsafe-$version.tar.gz
tar xvf ~/markupsafe-$version.tar.gz -C ~
cp ~/markupsafe-$version/src/markupsafe/* $extpath/markupsafe

[venukbh]

An year passed - will it be ever resolved?

[thatmlopsguy]

An year passed - will it be ever resolved?

I had the same issue but thanks to Kai Walter (@KaiWalter) answer, the problem is now solved.

[cvietor]

+1 a proper bug fix would be nice

[danmacode]

I tried quick fix from Kai Walter (@KaiWalter) in Windows 11 using PowerShell. It worked!

#!/bin/pwsh
$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"
$extPath = az extension list --query "[?name=='alias'].path" -o tsv
$version = "2.0.1"

curl -L --url https://github.com/pallets/markupsafe/archive/refs/tags/$version.tar.gz -o $HOME/markupsafe-$version.tar.gz 
tar -xvf $HOME/markupsafe-$version.tar.gz -C $HOME
Copy-Item -Path ~/markupsafe-$version/src/markupsafe/* -Destination $extPath/markupsafe -Recurse -Force

[bryancrosby]

Any chance this can be fixed for 2025?

[ale-rt]

This is very bad :/
Anyway, I am adding a note here so the next time I have this issue and I am too upset to remember I will find a suitable solution here.

I install azure-cli with pipx.

To fix this issue, I can run:

pipx runpip azure-cli install MarkupSafe==2.0.1

[AdilHindistan]

2025-07-09 seems still broken.

`PS c:> az extension add --name alias
No stable version of 'alias' to install. Preview versions allowed.
The installed extension 'alias' is in preview.

PS C:> az alias list
Unable to load extension 'alias: cannot import name 'soft_unicode' from 'markupsafe' (C:\Users***.azure\cliextensions\alias\markupsafe_init_.py)'. Use --debug for more information.
'alias' is misspelled or not recognized by the system.

Examples from AI knowledge base:
https://aka.ms/cli_ref
Read more about the command in reference docs

C:> az --version
azure-cli 2.75.0

core 2.75.0
telemetry 1.1.0

Extensions:
alias 0.5.2

Dependencies:
msal 1.33.0b1
azure-mgmt-resource 23.3.0`