Lucas Bajolet
b6141fd532
The hcl2_upgrade command transforms a JSON template into an HCL2 template for use with Packer. The command is quite fragile already, but given that this is the last remaining fragment that causes Packer to depend on the AWS SDK directly, we can do away with it. This commit therefore imports the definitions for AWS access config, so we can extract this information from the JSON template, and include it in the definition of the output source for AWS, since we manage this one differently from other sources. This allows us to not depend on the AWS plugin directly, which in turn makes Packer not need to link with the AWS plugin when compiling the executable. We are still depending on the AWS SDK for now since the SDK exposes a aws_secretsmanager function that can be used for interpolation (legacy JSON interpolation to be clear), so this cannot be removed from now, but we should consider some form of remediation in the future.
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].