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azlin auth remove

Remove authentication profile

Description

The azlin auth remove command deletes the specified authentication profile from configuration. This does not affect the actual service principal in Azure - it only removes the azlin configuration.

Usage

azlin auth remove [OPTIONS] PROFILE

Arguments

Argument Description
PROFILE Name of the profile to remove (required)

Options

Option Type Description
-y, --yes Flag Skip confirmation prompt
-h, --help Flag Show command help and exit

Examples

Remove Profile (With Confirmation)

# Remove profile with prompt
azlin auth remove old-profile

Output: 

Remove authentication profile 'old-profile'?
This will delete the stored credentials. [y/N]: y

Removing profile...
✓ Profile 'old-profile' removed successfully

Remove Without Confirmation

# Force remove (useful for scripts)
azlin auth remove staging --yes

# Remove multiple profiles
azlin auth remove old-dev --yes
azlin auth remove old-test --yes
azlin auth remove archived --yes

Behavior

When you run azlin auth remove PROFILE:

  1. Validation - Checks that profile exists
  2. Confirmation - Prompts for confirmation (unless --yes)
  3. Deletion - Removes profile from config file
  4. Cleanup - Clears any cached credentials

Note: This does NOT: - Delete the service principal from Azure - Revoke any Azure permissions - Affect other azlin configurations

Common Workflows

Clean Up Old Profiles

# List profiles
azlin auth list

# Remove unused ones
azlin auth remove old-profile-2023 --yes
azlin auth remove temp-testing --yes
azlin auth remove archived-prod --yes

# Verify cleanup
azlin auth list

Rotate Credentials

# Remove old profile
azlin auth remove production --yes

# Create new profile with rotated secret
azlin auth setup production \
  --client-id SAME-CLIENT-ID \
  --client-secret NEW-SECRET \
  --tenant-id SAME-TENANT-ID

# Test new credentials
azlin auth test --profile production

Reset Authentication

# Remove all profiles and start fresh
for profile in $(azlin auth list | grep -E "^[a-z]" | awk '{print $1}'); do
  azlin auth remove "$profile" --yes
done

# Create new default profile
azlin auth setup default

Safety Features

Confirmation Prompt

By default, asks for confirmation:

$ azlin auth remove production
Remove authentication profile 'production'?
This will delete the stored credentials. [y/N]:

Type y to proceed, n or Enter to cancel.

Skip Confirmation

Use --yes for automation:

azlin auth remove old-profile --yes

Troubleshooting

Profile Not Found

Symptoms: "Profile 'NAME' not found"

Solutions: 

# List available profiles
azlin auth list

# Check for typos
azlin auth list | grep -i NAME

Still Shows After Removal

Symptoms: Profile appears after removal

Solutions: 

# Check config file directly
cat ~/.azlin/config.toml | grep -A 3 "\[auth\."

# Manually edit if needed
nano ~/.azlin/config.toml

# Or remove config and recreate
mv ~/.azlin/config.toml ~/.azlin/config.toml.backup
azlin auth setup new-profile

Removed Wrong Profile

Symptoms: Accidentally deleted needed profile

Solutions: 

# Recreate profile (if you have credentials)
azlin auth setup PROFILE-NAME \
  --client-id CLIENT-ID \
  --client-secret SECRET \
  --tenant-id TENANT-ID

# Or restore from backup if you made one
cp ~/.azlin/config.toml.backup ~/.azlin/config.toml

Best Practices

Backup Before Removal

# Backup config before removing profiles
cp ~/.azlin/config.toml ~/.azlin/config.toml.backup

# Now safe to remove
azlin auth remove old-profile --yes

# If needed, restore
cp ~/.azlin/config.toml.backup ~/.azlin/config.toml

Document Removals

# Log profile changes
echo "$(date): Removed profile 'old-prod'" >> ~/.azlin/auth-changes.log
azlin auth remove old-prod --yes

Clean Up Regularly

# Monthly profile cleanup
azlin auth list
# Review and remove unused profiles
azlin auth remove unused-1 --yes
azlin auth remove unused-2 --yes

Verify Before Removal

# Before removing, verify not in use
azlin auth show profile-name

# Check if any contexts use it
grep -r "profile-name" ~/.azlin/config.toml

# Then safe to remove
azlin auth remove profile-name --yes

Automation Example

#!/bin/bash
# Remove old temporary auth profiles

TEMP_PROFILES=$(azlin auth list | grep "temp-" | awk '{print $1}')

for profile in $TEMP_PROFILES; do
  echo "Removing $profile..."
  azlin auth remove "$profile" --yes
done

echo "Cleanup complete"
azlin auth list

Source Code

See Also