Support terraform resources outside the given template directory

[denbeigh2000]

When creating a Coder template, I would like to reference local files outside the given template directory.

Context: I want to re-use common files/terraform modules between multiple templates in a repository. To do this right now, one needs to copy-paste common resources into each template's directory, which is inconvenient and increases the risk of introducing skew.

A practical example: These two templates are near-identical, yet it's not feasible to share common resources between then

• https://github.com/denbeigh2000/coder-templates/blob/master/aws-spot-nixos/main.tf
• https://github.com/denbeigh2000/coder-templates/blob/master/aws-nixos/main.tf

[kylecarbs]

@denbeigh2000 could you create a Terraform module to accomplish this instead?

[denbeigh2000]

that'd work if i were willing to split the module out into another repository and import it, but it leaves a few shortcomings:

• i can't include a terraform module from ../ between these templates
• i can't make use of common files (e.g., scripts, configuration files, etc) that may be used elsewhere in a shared monorepo

[kylecarbs]

Ahh, I see. I wonder if it'd be best to upload the entire directory as a template, and be able to specify a subdirectory to execute out of?

[denbeigh2000]

that's totally reasonable for the linked case, but there are some valid use cases where this doesn't make sense

e.g., $WORK uses a large, shared monorepo, and there are often resources in far-flung relative directories (e.g., ../../../../resources/some-other-team/some-other-product/resource.yml) that we want to include - an approach like this would require committing nearly the entire repository as a template.

would it be possible to resolve file() resources and include them in the uploaded tarball, so that they can be used in the template?

[ammario]

What if the tarring process traversed symlinks?

[denbeigh2000]

I'd have no issue with making a few relative symlinks to address this 👍

[ammario]

After #5720 is in you'll be able to do:

tar -cvh . | coder templates <push|create> -d - <name>

[denbeigh2000]

Thank you very, very much 🙏

[ofey404]

I like this feature, thanks @denbeigh2000

[pasuder]

What if the tarring process traversed symlinks?

As per my understanding, doing a tar of directory to push template is the only option to follow symlinks as coder templates push does not follow symlinks, correct?

[ammario]

What if the tarring process traversed symlinks?

As per my understanding, doing a tar of directory to push template is the only option to follow symlinks as coder templates push does not follow symlinks, correct?

That's correct. In general we don't want to go feature-to-feature with tar, so we promote using that for all advanced directory serialization.

[pasuder]

Good, it does work with this way:

tar -cvh . | coder templates push ..

Thanks!