Lucas Bajolet
9e4452329f
Having only one test suite for the whole of Packer makes it harder to segregate between test types, and makes for a longer runtime as no tests run in parallel by default. This commit splits the packer_test suite into several components in order to make extension easier. First we have `lib`: this package embeds the core for running Packer test suites. This ships facilities to build your own test suite for Packer core, and exposes convenience methods and structures for building plugins, packer core, and use it to run a test suite in a temporary directory. Then we have two separate test suites: one for plugins, and one for core itself, the latter of which does not depend on plugins being compiled at all. This sets the stage for more specialised test suites in the future, each of which can run in parallel on different parts of the code.
Packer
Packer is a tool for building identical machine images for multiple platforms from a single source configuration.
Packer is lightweight, runs on every major operating system, and is highly performant, creating machine images for multiple platforms in parallel. Packer supports various platforms through external plugin integrations, the full list of which can be found at https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/integrations.
The images that Packer creates can easily be turned into Vagrant boxes.
Quick Start
Packer
There is a great introduction and getting started guide for building a Docker image on your local machine without using any paid cloud resources.
Alternatively, you can refer to getting started with AWS to learn how to build a machine image for an external cloud provider.
HCP Packer
HCP Packer registry stores Packer image metadata, enabling you to track your image lifecycle.
To get started with building an AWS machine image to HCP Packer for referencing in Terraform refer to the collection of HCP Packer Tutorials.
Documentation
Comprehensive documentation is viewable on the Packer website at https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/docs.
Contributing to Packer
See CONTRIBUTING.md for best practices and instructions on setting up your development environment to work on Packer.
Unmaintained Plugins
As contributors' circumstances change, development on a community maintained plugin can slow. When this happens, HashiCorp may use GitHub's option to archive the plugin’s repository, to clearly signal the plugin's status to users.
What does unmaintained mean?
- The code repository and all commit history will still be available.
- Documentation will remain on the Packer website.
- Issues and pull requests are monitored as a best effort.
- No active development will be performed by HashiCorp.
If you are interested in maintaining an unmaintained or archived plugin, please reach out to us at [email protected].