Rename Strict field to WarnOnUndeclaredVar

The field name Strict is a bit vague since it is only used for
checking against undeclared variables within a var-file definition.
To mitigate against potential overloading of this field it is
being renamed to be more explicit on its usage.

command/cli.go

@@ -67,8 +67,11 @@ type MetaArgs struct {
 	Vars         map[string]string
 	VarFiles     []string
 	// set to "hcl2" to force hcl2 mode
-	ConfigType       configType
-	StrictValidation bool
+	ConfigType configType
+
+	// WarnOnUndeclared does not have a common default, as the default varies per sub-command usage.
+	// Refer to individual command FlagSets for usage.
+	WarnOnUndeclaredVar bool
 }
 
 func (ba *BuildArgs) AddFlagSets(flags *flag.FlagSet) {
@@ -131,15 +134,15 @@ type FixArgs struct {
 
 func (va *ValidateArgs) AddFlagSets(flags *flag.FlagSet) {
 	flags.BoolVar(&va.SyntaxOnly, "syntax-only", false, "check syntax only")
-	flags.BoolVar(&va.WarnOnUndeclared, "warn-on-undeclared", true, "show warnings for pkrvars definition files containing undeclared variables")
+	flags.BoolVar(&va.NoWarnUndeclaredVar, "no-warn-undeclared-var", false, "Ignore warnings for variable files containing undeclared variables.")
 
 	va.MetaArgs.AddFlagSets(flags)
 }
 
 // ValidateArgs represents a parsed cli line for a `packer validate`
 type ValidateArgs struct {
 	MetaArgs
-	SyntaxOnly, WarnOnUndeclared bool
+	SyntaxOnly, NoWarnUndeclaredVar bool
 }
 
 func (va *InspectArgs) AddFlagSets(flags *flag.FlagSet) {

command/meta.go

@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ func (m *Meta) GetConfigFromHCL(cla *MetaArgs) (*hcl2template.PackerConfig, int)
 		Parser:                  hclparse.NewParser(),
 		PluginConfig:            m.CoreConfig.Components.PluginConfig,
 		ValidationOptions: hcl2template.ValidationOptions{
-			Strict: cla.StrictValidation,
+			WarnOnUndeclaredVar: cla.WarnOnUndeclaredVar,
 		},
 	}
 	cfg, diags := parser.Parse(cla.Path, cla.VarFiles, cla.Vars)

command/validate.go

@@ -45,7 +45,11 @@ func (c *ValidateCommand) ParseArgs(args []string) (*ValidateArgs, int) {
 }
 
 func (c *ValidateCommand) RunContext(ctx context.Context, cla *ValidateArgs) int {
-	cla.StrictValidation = cla.WarnOnUndeclared
+	// By default we want to inform users of undeclared variables when validating but not during build time.
+	cla.MetaArgs.WarnOnUndeclaredVar = true
+	if cla.NoWarnUndeclaredVar {
+		cla.MetaArgs.WarnOnUndeclaredVar = false
+	}
 
 	packerStarter, ret := c.GetConfig(&cla.MetaArgs)
 	if ret != 0 {
@@ -61,7 +65,6 @@ func (c *ValidateCommand) RunContext(ctx context.Context, cla *ValidateArgs) int
 	diags := packerStarter.Initialize(packer.InitializeOptions{
 		SkipDatasourcesExecution: true,
 	})
-
 	ret = writeDiags(c.Ui, nil, diags)
 	if ret != 0 {
 		return ret
@@ -100,11 +103,11 @@ Options:
 
   -syntax-only                  Only check syntax. Do not verify config of the template.
   -except=foo,bar,baz           Validate all builds other than these.
-  -machine-readable             Produce machine-readable output.
   -only=foo,bar,baz             Validate only these builds.
+  -machine-readable             Produce machine-readable output.
   -var 'key=value'              Variable for templates, can be used multiple times.
-  -var-file=path                JSON or HCL2 file containing user variables.
-  -warn-on-undeclared=false     Disable warnings for JSON or HCL2  files containing undeclared variables. (Default true)
+  -var-file=path                JSON or HCL2 file containing user variables, can be used multiple times.
+  -no-warn-undeclared-var       Disable warnings for user variable files containing undeclared variables.
 `
 
 	return strings.TrimSpace(helpText)

command/validate_test.go

@@ -250,12 +250,12 @@ func TestValidateCommand_VarFilesWarnOnUndeclared(t *testing.T) {
 		varfile  string
 		exitCode int
 	}{
-		{name: "warn-on-undeclared=true with unused variable in var-file definition",
+		{name: "default warning with unused variable in HCL var-file definition",
 			path:     filepath.Join(testFixture(filepath.Join("validate", "var-file-tests")), "basic.pkr.hcl"),
 			varfile:  filepath.Join(testFixture(filepath.Join("validate", "var-file-tests")), "undeclared.pkrvars.hcl"),
 			exitCode: 0,
 		},
-		{name: "warn-on-undeclared=true with unused variable in var-file definition",
+		{name: "default warning with unused variable in JSON var-file definition",
 			path:     filepath.Join(testFixture(filepath.Join("validate", "var-file-tests")), "basic.pkr.hcl"),
 			varfile:  filepath.Join(testFixture(filepath.Join("validate", "var-file-tests")), "undeclared.json"),
 			exitCode: 0,
@@ -302,12 +302,12 @@ func TestValidateCommand_VarFilesDisableWarnOnUndeclared(t *testing.T) {
 		varfile  string
 		exitCode int
 	}{
-		{name: "warn-on-undeclared=false with unused variable in var-file definition",
+		{name: "no-warn-undeclared-var with unused variable in HCL var-file definition",
 			path:     filepath.Join(testFixture(filepath.Join("validate", "var-file-tests")), "basic.pkr.hcl"),
 			varfile:  filepath.Join(testFixture(filepath.Join("validate", "var-file-tests")), "undeclared.pkrvars.hcl"),
 			exitCode: 0,
 		},
-		{name: "warn-on-undeclared=false with unused variable in JSON var-file definition",
+		{name: "no-warn-undeclared-var with unused variable in JSON var-file definition",
 			path:     filepath.Join(testFixture(filepath.Join("validate", "var-file-tests")), "basic.pkr.hcl"),
 			varfile:  filepath.Join(testFixture(filepath.Join("validate", "var-file-tests")), "undeclared.json"),
 			exitCode: 0,
@@ -319,7 +319,7 @@ func TestValidateCommand_VarFilesDisableWarnOnUndeclared(t *testing.T) {
 				Meta: TestMetaFile(t),
 			}
 			tc := tc
-			args := []string{"-warn-on-undeclared=false", "-var-file", tc.varfile, tc.path}
+			args := []string{"-no-warn-undeclared-var", "-var-file", tc.varfile, tc.path}
 			if code := c.Run(args); code != tc.exitCode {
 				fatalCommand(t, c.Meta)
 			}

hcl2template/types.packer_config.go

@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ type PackerConfig struct {
 }
 
 type ValidationOptions struct {
-	Strict bool
+	WarnOnUndeclaredVar bool
 }
 
 const (

hcl2template/types.variables.go

@@ -659,7 +659,7 @@ func (cfg *PackerConfig) collectInputVariableValues(env []string, files []*hcl.F
 		for name, attr := range attrs {
 			variable, found := variables[name]
 			if !found {
-				if cfg.ValidationOptions.Strict == false {
+				if !cfg.ValidationOptions.WarnOnUndeclaredVar {
 					continue
 				}
 

hcl2template/types.variables_test.go

@@ -859,7 +859,7 @@ func TestVariables_collectVariableValues(t *testing.T) {
 		{name: "undefined but set value - pkrvar file - strict mode",
 			variables: Variables{},
 			validationOptions: ValidationOptions{
-				Strict: true,
+				WarnOnUndeclaredVar: true,
 			},
 			args: args{
 				hclFiles: []string{`undefined_string="value"`},