filebase64 function

[elliottlawrence]

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Description

Terraform has a filebase64 built-in function, but it doesn't seem like Packer supports it.

For what it's worth, if I try to use the file function on something that isn't valid UTF-8, Packer generates this error, which seems to imply the filebase64 function should exist:

Call to function "file" failed: contents of
*** are not valid UTF-8; use the
filebase64 function to obtain the Base64 encoded contents or the other file
functions (e.g. filemd5, filesha256) to obtain file hashing results instead.

Use Case(s)

Loading a binary file and embedding a base64 encoding of it into a cloud-init config, for example.

Potential configuration

Potential References

[lbajolet-hashicorp]

Hi @elliottlawrence,

Sounds like a good idea indeed, we most likely ported the file function over from Terraform, including the error message, without changing it, hence why it points to a function that doesn't yet exist in Packer.

This should be reasonably easy to port over too, I'll look into this right now, once ported over this will be available in the next version we release.

Thanks for bringing this up!

[lbajolet-hashicorp]

@elliottlawrence: PR is now open, may I ask you to test it out to be sure it matches your expectations? I have added some tests, but nothing beats real-life experience :)
If it gets approved in the current state, I'll merge it and we'll release it with Packer 1.12.0, which we've scheduled tentatively before end-of-year (probably December).