emit apply change summary even on failure by purajit · Pull Request #38344 · hashicorp/terraform

purajit · 2026-04-04T00:08:16Z

Resolves #38343

Target Release

1.16.x

CHANGELOG entry

This change is user-facing and I added a changelog entry.
This change is not user-facing.

Testing/results

Besides unit tests, ran on my local terraform playground:

With this file

resource "null_resource" "will_succeed" {
}

resource "local_file" "will_fail" {
  filename = "/definitely/does/not/exist/out.txt"
  content  = ""
}

we used to get:

> terraform apply -auto-approve

Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution plan. Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
  + create

Terraform will perform the following actions:

  # local_file.will_fail will be created
  + resource "local_file" "will_fail" {
      + content_base64sha256 = (known after apply)
      + content_base64sha512 = (known after apply)
      + content_md5          = (known after apply)
      + content_sha1         = (known after apply)
      + content_sha256       = (known after apply)
      + content_sha512       = (known after apply)
      + directory_permission = "0777"
      + file_permission      = "0777"
      + filename             = "/definitely/does/not/exist/out.txt"
      + id                   = (known after apply)
        # (1 unchanged attribute hidden)
    }

  # null_resource.will_succeed will be created
  + resource "null_resource" "will_succeed" {
      + id = (known after apply)
    }

Plan: 2 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.
null_resource.will_succeed: Creating...
local_file.will_fail: Creating...
null_resource.will_succeed: Creation complete after 0s [id=2020311957725937646]
╷
│ Error: Create local file error
│
│   with local_file.will_fail,
│   on main.tf line 4, in resource "local_file" "will_fail":
│    4: resource "local_file" "will_fail" {
│
│ An unexpected error occurred while creating file directory
│
│ +Original Error: mkdir /definitely: read-only file system
╵

> terraform apply -auto-approve -json
{"@level":"info","@message":"Terraform 1.14.7","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:18:38.435670-07:00","terraform":"1.14.7","type":"version","ui":"1.2"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"null_resource.will_succeed: Plan to create","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:18:38.559405-07:00","change":{"resource":{"addr":"null_resource.will_succeed","module":"","resource":"null_resource.will_succeed","implied_provider":"null","resource_type":"null_resource","resource_name":"will_succeed","resource_key":null},"action":"create"},"type":"planned_change"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"local_file.will_fail: Plan to create","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:18:38.559444-07:00","change":{"resource":{"addr":"local_file.will_fail","module":"","resource":"local_file.will_fail","implied_provider":"local","resource_type":"local_file","resource_name":"will_fail","resource_key":null},"action":"create"},"type":"planned_change"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"Plan: 2 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:18:38.559448-07:00","changes":{"add":2,"change":0,"import":0,"remove":0,"action_invocation":0,"operation":"plan"},"type":"change_summary"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"null_resource.will_succeed: Creating...","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:18:38.592476-07:00","hook":{"resource":{"addr":"null_resource.will_succeed","module":"","resource":"null_resource.will_succeed","implied_provider":"null","resource_type":"null_resource","resource_name":"will_succeed","resource_key":null},"action":"create"},"type":"apply_start"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"null_resource.will_succeed: Creation complete after 0s [id=2809849765760413623]","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:18:38.593045-07:00","hook":{"resource":{"addr":"null_resource.will_succeed","module":"","resource":"null_resource.will_succeed","implied_provider":"null","resource_type":"null_resource","resource_name":"will_succeed","resource_key":null},"action":"create","id_key":"id","id_value":"2809849765760413623","elapsed_seconds":0},"type":"apply_complete"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"local_file.will_fail: Creating...","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:18:38.593285-07:00","hook":{"resource":{"addr":"local_file.will_fail","module":"","resource":"local_file.will_fail","implied_provider":"local","resource_type":"local_file","resource_name":"will_fail","resource_key":null},"action":"create"},"type":"apply_start"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"local_file.will_fail: Creation errored after 0s","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:18:38.602363-07:00","hook":{"resource":{"addr":"local_file.will_fail","module":"","resource":"local_file.will_fail","implied_provider":"local","resource_type":"local_file","resource_name":"will_fail","resource_key":null},"action":"create","elapsed_seconds":0},"type":"apply_errored"}
{"@level":"error","@message":"Error: Create local file error","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:18:38.610577-07:00","diagnostic":{"severity":"error","summary":"Create local file error","detail":"An unexpected error occurred while creating file directory\n\n+Original Error: mkdir /definitely: read-only file system","address":"local_file.will_fail","range":{"filename":"main.tf","start":{"line":4,"column":35,"byte":79},"end":{"line":4,"column":36,"byte":80}},"snippet":{"context":"resource \"local_file\" \"will_fail\"","code":"resource \"local_file\" \"will_fail\" {","start_line":4,"highlight_start_offset":34,"highlight_end_offset":35,"values":[]}},"type":"diagnostic"}

Now we get:

> ../../hashicorp/terraform/bin/terraform apply -auto-approve
Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution plan. Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
  + create

Terraform will perform the following actions:

  # local_file.will_fail will be created
  + resource "local_file" "will_fail" {
      + content_base64sha256 = (known after apply)
      + content_base64sha512 = (known after apply)
      + content_md5          = (known after apply)
      + content_sha1         = (known after apply)
      + content_sha256       = (known after apply)
      + content_sha512       = (known after apply)
      + directory_permission = "0777"
      + file_permission      = "0777"
      + filename             = "/definitely/does/not/exist/out.txt"
      + id                   = (known after apply)
        # (1 unchanged attribute hidden)
    }

  # null_resource.will_succeed will be created
  + resource "null_resource" "will_succeed" {
      + id = (known after apply)
    }

Plan: 2 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.
null_resource.will_succeed: Creating...
null_resource.will_succeed: Creation complete after 0s [id=3755547938556189260]
local_file.will_fail: Creating...
╷
│ Error: Create local file error
│
│   with local_file.will_fail,
│   on main.tf line 4, in resource "local_file" "will_fail":
│    4: resource "local_file" "will_fail" {
│
│ An unexpected error occurred while creating file directory
│
│ +Original Error: mkdir /definitely: read-only file system
╵

Apply incomplete with errors! Resources: 1 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

> echo $?
1

> ../../hashicorp/terraform/bin/terraform apply -auto-approve -json
{"@level":"info","@message":"Terraform 1.16.0-dev","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:55:34.220957-07:00","terraform":"1.16.0-dev","type":"version","ui":"1.3"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"null_resource.will_succeed: Plan to create","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:55:34.892383-07:00","change":{"resource":{"addr":"null_resource.will_succeed","module":"","resource":"null_resource.will_succeed","implied_provider":"null","resource_type":"null_resource","resource_name":"will_succeed","resource_key":null},"action":"create"},"type":"planned_change"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"local_file.will_fail: Plan to create","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:55:34.892441-07:00","change":{"resource":{"addr":"local_file.will_fail","module":"","resource":"local_file.will_fail","implied_provider":"local","resource_type":"local_file","resource_name":"will_fail","resource_key":null},"action":"create"},"type":"planned_change"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"Plan: 2 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:55:34.892447-07:00","changes":{"add":2,"change":0,"import":0,"remove":0,"action_invocation":0,"operation":"plan"},"type":"change_summary"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"null_resource.will_succeed: Creating...","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:55:34.929490-07:00","hook":{"resource":{"addr":"null_resource.will_succeed","module":"","resource":"null_resource.will_succeed","implied_provider":"null","resource_type":"null_resource","resource_name":"will_succeed","resource_key":null},"action":"create"},"type":"apply_start"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"local_file.will_fail: Creating...","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:55:34.929979-07:00","hook":{"resource":{"addr":"local_file.will_fail","module":"","resource":"local_file.will_fail","implied_provider":"local","resource_type":"local_file","resource_name":"will_fail","resource_key":null},"action":"create"},"type":"apply_start"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"null_resource.will_succeed: Creation complete after 0s [id=8397979251889827490]","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:55:34.930005-07:00","hook":{"resource":{"addr":"null_resource.will_succeed","module":"","resource":"null_resource.will_succeed","implied_provider":"null","resource_type":"null_resource","resource_name":"will_succeed","resource_key":null},"action":"create","id_key":"id","id_value":"8397979251889827490","elapsed_seconds":0},"type":"apply_complete"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"local_file.will_fail: Creation errored after 0s","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:55:34.937911-07:00","hook":{"resource":{"addr":"local_file.will_fail","module":"","resource":"local_file.will_fail","implied_provider":"local","resource_type":"local_file","resource_name":"will_fail","resource_key":null},"action":"create","elapsed_seconds":0},"type":"apply_errored"}
{"@level":"error","@message":"Error: Create local file error","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:55:34.945866-07:00","diagnostic":{"severity":"error","summary":"Create local file error","detail":"An unexpected error occurred while creating file directory\n\n+Original Error: mkdir /definitely: read-only file system","address":"local_file.will_fail","range":{"filename":"main.tf","start":{"line":4,"column":35,"byte":79},"end":{"line":4,"column":36,"byte":80}},"snippet":{"context":"resource \"local_file\" \"will_fail\"","code":"resource \"local_file\" \"will_fail\" {","start_line":4,"highlight_start_offset":34,"highlight_end_offset":35,"values":[]}},"type":"diagnostic"}
{"@level":"info","@message":"Apply incomplete with errors! Resources: 1 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.","@module":"terraform.ui","@timestamp":"2026-04-03T16:55:34.946403-07:00","changes":{"add":1,"change":0,"import":0,"remove":0,"action_invocation":0,"operation":"apply","errored":true},"type":"change_summary"}

> echo $?
1

hashicorp-cla-app · 2026-04-04T00:08:36Z

All committers have signed the CLA.

crw · 2026-04-06T18:34:47Z

@purajit thanks for this submission. As a heads up, per our Contributing.md guide, any solution must be proposed in an issue and the solution accepted by a maintainer before opening a PR. Also per our Contributing.md guide, if you are using an LLM in any manner as part of this contribution, you need to disclose this information. Can you confirm this is or is not employing LLM-assisted coding tools? Thanks, this will help us proceed with triage!

purajit · 2026-04-15T19:22:39Z

As a heads up, per our Contributing.md guide, any solution must be proposed in an issue and the solution accepted by a maintainer before opening a PR.

Ah apologies for that; I read that as being for larger changes, though I understand as it
says that small changes could end up have larger implications. Shall I close this PR and
just post the logic diff in the issue?

if you are using an LLM in any manner as part of this contribution, you need to disclose this information. Can you confirm this is or is not employing LLM-assisted coding tools?

I used an LLM to confirm I hadn't missed any output format locations, but the code itself
was written by me (I'm still unsure how much I want to let them into my workflows). The
tests were mostly written by copy-paste-adjusting existing ones :P

crw · 2026-04-16T16:59:50Z

Let's leave it open and I will bring it to triage. Thanks!

purajit added 2 commits April 3, 2026 17:05

emit apply change summary on failure

9263e7e

changelog

6654fd8

purajit requested a review from a team as a code owner April 4, 2026 00:08

purajit mentioned this pull request Apr 6, 2026

Terraform apply should show summaries even on failures #38343

Open

crw added the enhancement label Apr 16, 2026

purajit changed the title ~~emit apply change summary on failure~~ emit apply change summary even on failure Apr 16, 2026

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emit apply change summary even on failure#38344

emit apply change summary even on failure#38344
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purajit commented Apr 4, 2026

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hashicorp-cla-app Bot commented Apr 4, 2026 •

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purajit commented Apr 4, 2026

Target Release

CHANGELOG entry

Testing/results

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hashicorp-cla-app Bot commented Apr 4, 2026 •

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