Plugins installation path and delete issue

[githubvick]

Terraform Version

v0.11.1

...

Terraform Configuration Files

...

I had upgraded from version 0.9. I've been using Terraform with automation through Jenkins where environments would be created and destroyed.

After each automation iteration, the terraform config files would be deleted and checked out from SCM repo.

After installation of 0.11.1, I had to run "terraform init" command and it downloaded the azurerm plugin in .terraform/plugins/linux_amd64/terraform-provider-azurerm_v0.3.3_x4 folder which has the config files and not in the home directory as mentioned here https://www.terraform.io/docs/configuration/providers.html#third-party-plugins

Now when Jenkins tries to delete the repo to checkout again, it complains that it is not able to delete the above plugin probably due to a file lock.

Why the plugins are installed inside of the working directory and not in the home directory ? Is it possible to install the plugin in a different folder during init so that automation is possible?

Thanks,

Expected Behavior

Plugins to be installed in the HOME directory

Actual Behavior

Plugins installed in the working directory

Steps to Reproduce

References

hashicorp/terraform-provider-azurerm#596

[jbardin]

Hi @githubvick,

Sorry this is posing a problem for you. I'm not sure what would be locking the above file, other than if it was still in use by the running process, but even then linux doesn't enforce file locking and allows unlinking of files being executed. Perhaps it's a mounted volume issue?

The .terraform/plugins/ directory is where terraform stores the automatically installed plugins. You can certainly store your plugins in your HOME directory as shown in the linked documentation, in the ~/.terraform.d/plugins directory, by configuring the plugin_cache_dir directory, or via the -plugin-dir init flag which can be used to prevent automatic installation entirely.

[githubvick]

hi @jbardin , thx for your response.

Actually, it is not a file lock, but when Jenkins tries to clean up, it cleans up using git remove command, and it sees there is a new directory .terraform created for installing plugins which is untracked and it is not able to remove it.

git status
Untracked files:
.terraform/

I tried adding export plugin_cache_dir="$HOME/.terraform.d/plugin-cache" in /etc/profile and used

1. terraform init from the home directory - it gave this message

Terraform initialized in an empty directory!

The directory has no Terraform configuration files. You may begin working
with Terraform immediately by creating Terraform configuration files.

2. sudo terraform init from the directory where the Azure tf file reside.

Still it installs on the path "/var/lib/jenkins/workspace/Myservices/04-Execute-Testcases/terraform/azure/.terraform/plugins/linux_amd64/terraform-provider-azurerm_v0.3.3_x4"

and not on $HOME directory.

[jbardin]

@githubvick,

The .terraform directory is not related only to plugins, and should generally just be ignored in git which should solve the issue here. Even when the plugins aren't stored there, terraform needs to maintain other information related initialization of the config.

I'm not sure why in (1) you're running terraform init in the $HOME directory; you need run that command in the config directory you're initializing. And in (2), sudo changes the user, and hence changes the $HOME directory. (you generally do not want to run terraform as root, and there shouldn't be any reason to).

[ckyoog]

Hi @githubvick,

You can use environment variable TF_DATA_DIR to change the location of dir .terraform/

[jbardin]

Hi,

I'm closing this for now, as it seems that things are working as expected.

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.