Example TF file is not rendered in index.md with custom template

[arxeiss]

I have file examples/provider/provider.tf and I run tfplugindocs generate. It works great and in file docs/index.md I see the content of provider.tf file.

However, when I create custom index template in file templates/index.md.tmpl with following content, it does not work. I see just path to the file instead of content of the file.

Just to be clear, content of my template is the same as the default one here https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-plugin-docs/blob/main/internal/provider/template.go#L246 so it is not issue with my template. Especially because it works well for resources.md.tmpl and data-sources.md.tmpl

Source codes

---
page_title: "{{.ProviderShortName}} Provider"
subcategory: ""
description: |-
{{ .Description | plainmarkdown | trimspace | prefixlines "  " }}
---

# {{.ProviderShortName}} Provider

{{ .Description | trimspace }}

{{ if .HasExample -}}
## Example Usage

{{ printf "{{tffile %q}}" .ExampleFile }}
{{- end }}

{{ .SchemaMarkdown | trimspace }}

<!-- ... not printing everything, affected part -->

## Example Usage

{{tffile "examples/provider/provider.tf"}}

<!-- ... continue with schema -->

[jacobbednarz]

using the latest version, a custom template is working fine for us.

• template: https://github.com/cloudflare/terraform-provider-cloudflare/blob/master/templates/index.md.tmpl
• output: https://github.com/cloudflare/terraform-provider-cloudflare/blob/master/docs/index.md

you might need to incrementally add the parts and see what is not working. we don't use .HasExample in the index template for instance.

[arxeiss]

I cloned your repo and I tried it out. I did make docs and it worked well without issues. No changes to docs.
Then I modified index.md.tmpl like this:

-{{ tffile "examples/provider/provider.tf" }}
+{{ printf "{{tffile %q}}" .ExampleFile }}

and in generated file docs/index.md, instead of content of provider.tf I see {{tffile "examples/provider/provider.tf"}}.

So this code {{ printf "{{tffile %q}}" .ExampleFile }} works when it is in resources.md.tmpl but not in index.md.tmpl. And here comes my confusion, because if you check source code of this tool, the mentioned code is in default templates for Resource but also Provider. https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-plugin-docs/blob/main/internal/provider/template.go#L261

So when I copied default ones, it wasn't working for me.

[antoineco]

The reason why it doesn't work is because of the level of indirection caused by the usage of printf:

terraform-plugin-docs/internal/provider/template.go

Line 282 in b7ac2d7

{{ printf "{{tffile %q}}" .ExampleFile }}

The result of this function is in fact expected:

1. the text {{tffile (literally)
2. followed by the value of .ExampleFile in quotes
3. followed by }} (also literally)

There is no need to use printf inside template files:

-{{ printf "{{tffile %q}}" .ExampleFile }}
+{{ tffile .ExampleFile }}

[github-actions]

I'm going to lock this issue because it has been closed for 30 days ⏳. This helps our maintainers find and focus on the active issues.
If you have found a problem that seems similar to this, please open a new issue and complete the issue template so we can capture all the details necessary to investigate further.