Error: Unable to locate executable file: 'powershell' when running Azure CLI task in ADO pipeline

Question

I am trying to run an Azure CLI task in pipeline and getting the following error :

Starting: AzureCLI
==============================================================================
Task         : Azure CLI
Description  : Run Azure CLI commands against an Azure subscription in a PowerShell 
Core/Shell script when running on Linux agent or PowerShell/PowerShell Core/Batch script when running on Windows agent.
Version      : 2.1.0
Author       : Microsoft Corporation
Help         : https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/deploy/azure-cli
==============================================================================
##[error]Script failed with error: Error: Unable to locate executable file: 'powershell'. Please verify either the file path exists or the file can be found within a directory specified by the PATH environment variable. Also check the file mode to verify the file is executable.
Finishing: AzureCLI

The pre-requisites mentioned in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/deploy/azure-cli?view=azure-devops is fulfilled.

**Pre-requisites mentioned in the ms site :**  
Microsoft hosted agents have Azure CLI pre-installed. However if you are using private agents, install Azure CLI on the computer(s) that run the build and release agent. If an agent is already running on the machine on which the Azure CLI is installed, restart the agent to ensure all the relevant stage variables are updated.

I am not using any private agents. I am using a free subscription.

The task in pipeline yaml is as :

 - task: AzureCLI@2
  inputs:
    azureSubscription: 'Free Trial(<My Subscription id>)'
    scriptType: 'ps'
    scriptLocation: 'inlineScript'
    inlineScript: |
      az --version
      az account show

Why is the agent not able to find powershell in its system!! Is this a bug?

Thanks!

Inzi Inzi · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-11T06:09:22

Hi try without "scriptType" and change the CLI version to 1, Please see the below script,

 - task: AzureCLI@1
  inputs:
    azureSubscription: 'Free Trial(<My Subscription id>)'
    scriptLocation: 'inlineScript'
    inlineScript: |
      az --version
      az account show

Error: Unable to locate executable file: 'powershell' when running Azure CLI task in ADO pipeline

1 Answers