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website/source/docs/providers/external/data_source.html.md
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--- | ||
layout: "external" | ||
page_title: "External Data Source" | ||
sidebar_current: "docs-external-data-source" | ||
description: |- | ||
Executes an external program that implements a data source. | ||
--- | ||
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# External Data Source | ||
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The `external` data source allows an external program implementing a specific | ||
protocol (defined below) to act as a data source, exposing arbitrary | ||
data for use elsewhere in the Terraform configuration. | ||
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~> **Warning** This mechanism is provided as an "escape hatch" for exceptional | ||
situations where a first-class Terraform provider is not more appropriate. | ||
Its capabilities are limited in comparison to a true data source, and | ||
implementing a data source via an external program is likely to hurt the | ||
portability of your Terraform configuration by creating dependencies on | ||
external programs and libraries that may not be available (or may need to | ||
be used differently) on different operating systems. | ||
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## Example Usage | ||
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``` | ||
data "external" "example" { | ||
program = ["python", "${path.module}/example-data-source.py"] | ||
query = { | ||
# arbitrary map from strings to strings, passed | ||
# to the external program as the data query. | ||
id = "abc123" | ||
} | ||
} | ||
``` | ||
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## External Program Protocol | ||
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The external program described by the `program` attribute must implement a | ||
specific protocol for interacting with Terraform, as follows. | ||
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The program must read all of the data passed to it on `stdin`, and parse | ||
it as a JSON object. The JSON object contains the contents of the `query` | ||
argument and its values will always be strings. | ||
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The program must then produce a valid JSON object on `stdout`, which will | ||
be used to populate the `result` attribute exported to the rest of the | ||
Terraform configuration. This JSON object must again have all of its | ||
values as strings. On successful completion it must exit with status zero. | ||
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If the program encounters an error and is unable to produce a result, it | ||
must print a human-readable error message (ideally a single line) to `stderr` | ||
and exit with a non-zero status. Any data on `stdout` is ignored if the | ||
program returns a non-zero status. | ||
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All environment variables visible to the Terraform process are passed through | ||
to the child program. | ||
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Terraform expects a data source to have *no observable side-effects*, and will | ||
re-run the program each time the state is refreshed. | ||
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## Argument Reference | ||
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The following arguments are supported: | ||
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* `program` - (Required) A list of strings, whose first element is the program | ||
to run and whose subsequent elements are optional command line arguments | ||
to the program. Terraform does not execute the program through a shell, so | ||
it is not necessary to escape shell metacharacters nor add quotes around | ||
arguments containing spaces. | ||
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* `query` - (Optional) A map of string values to pass to the external program | ||
as the query arguments. If not supplied, the program will recieve an empty | ||
object as its input. | ||
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## Attributes Reference | ||
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The following attributes are exported: | ||
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* `result` - A map of string values returned from the external program. | ||
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## Processing JSON in shell scripts | ||
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Since the external data source protocol uses JSON, it is recommended to use | ||
the utility [`jq`](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/) to translate to and from | ||
JSON in a robust way when implementing a data source in a shell scripting | ||
language. | ||
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The following example shows some input/output boilerplate code for a | ||
data source implemented in bash: | ||
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``` | ||
#!/bin/bash | ||
# Exit if any of the intermediate steps fail | ||
set -e | ||
# Extract "foo" and "baz" arguments from the input into | ||
# FOO and BAZ shell variables. | ||
# jq will ensure that the values are properly quoted | ||
# and escaped for consumption by the shell. | ||
eval "$(jq -r '@sh "FOO=\(.foo) BAZ=\(.baz)"')" | ||
# Placeholder for whatever data-fetching logic your script implements | ||
FOOBAZ="$FOO BAZ" | ||
# Safely produce a JSON object containing the result value. | ||
# jq will ensure that the value is properly quoted | ||
# and escaped to produce a valid JSON string. | ||
jq -n --arg foobaz "$FOOBAZ" '{"foobaz":$foobaz}' | ||
``` |
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website/source/docs/providers/external/index.html.markdown
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--- | ||
layout: "external" | ||
page_title: "Provider: External" | ||
sidebar_current: "docs-external-index" | ||
description: |- | ||
The external provider allows external scripts to be integrated with Terraform. | ||
--- | ||
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# External Provider | ||
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`external` is a special provider that exists to provide an interface | ||
between Terraform and external programs. | ||
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Using this provider it is possible to write separate programs that can | ||
participate in the Terraform workflow by implementing a specific protocol. | ||
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This provider is intended to be used for simple situations where you wish | ||
to integrate Terraform with a system for which a first-class provider | ||
doesn't exist. It is not as powerful as a first-class Terraform provider, | ||
so users of this interface should carefully consider the implications | ||
described on each of the child documentation pages (available from the | ||
navigation bar) for each type of object this provider supports. | ||
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<% wrap_layout :inner do %> | ||
<% content_for :sidebar do %> | ||
<div class="docs-sidebar hidden-print affix-top" role="complementary"> | ||
<ul class="nav docs-sidenav"> | ||
<li<%#= sidebar_current("docs-home") %>> | ||
<a href="/docs/providers/index.html">« Documentation Home</a> | ||
</li> | ||
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<li<%= sidebar_current("docs-external-index") %>> | ||
<a href="/docs/providers/external/index.html">External Provider</a> | ||
<ul class="nav nav-visible"> | ||
<li<%= sidebar_current("docs-external-data-source") %>> | ||
<a href="/docs/providers/external/data_source.html">Data Source</a> | ||
</li> | ||
</ul> | ||
</li> | ||
</ul> | ||
</div> | ||
<% end %> | ||
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<%= yield %> | ||
<% end %> |