/usr/bin/az wrapper does not account for environments where an alternate python is used (RHEL8) #28530
Description
Describe the bug
The 'az' shell script wrapper that sets up the call to python created during the RPM build process (scripts/release/rpm/azure-cli.spec) uses the first python3.9 that it finds in PATH:
python_cmd=python3.9
if command -v python3.9 &>/dev/null; then python_cmd=python3.9; fi
AZ_INSTALLER=RPM PYTHONPATH="$bin_dir/../lib64/az/lib/python3.9/site-packages" $python_cmd -sm azure.cli "$@"
However, we often times run az within scripts in environments where we use our own non-system Python that may not be compatible with az that can cause azure-cli to fail. Since the dnf/yum install process properly pulls down the system python3.9 as a dependency, it makes sense that az should call that instead of relying on what's in the user's environment. I realize based on the various commits and history that this is a very finicky and multi-faceted issue since many OS/distributions are involved, but at least for us it makes sense to explicitly set the PATH or python to be used so that azure-cli can be used even in environments where a conflicting Python is required. As an example, dnf uses #!/usr/libexec/platform-python in RHEL like distros.
It is possible to work around this issue by wrapping around the az wrapper and setting the right values explicitly, but it makes more sense to have the actual az wrapper handle the logic correctly in the first place.
Related command
Steps to reproduce using a Rocky Linux 8 container:
docker run -it rockylinux:8 /bin/bash
#Install Azure-CLI
rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc
dnf install -y https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/8/packages-microsoft-prod.rpm
#2.58.0-1.el8 at time of writing
dnf install -y azure-cli
#Install alternative Python with incompatibilities
dnf install -y wget gcc make zlib-devel
wget 'https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.9.18/Python-3.9.18.tgz'
tar -xf Python-*
cd Python-3.9.18
./configure --prefix=/tmp/python39 #No SSL support on purpose
make
make install
#Works as expected using system Python
az
#Fails because az wrapper runs alternative python with incompatibilities
export PATH=/tmp/python39/bin/:$PATH
az
Errors
N/A
Issue script & Debug output
N/A
Expected behavior
az / azure-cli to function even when the first python in PATH is set to an alternative Python install
Environment Summary
azure-cli 2.58.0-1.el8
Additional context
No response