.tfvars file doesn't seem to be loaded by default

[seanherron]

According to the documentation, a file with the extension .tfvars should be loaded automatically. However, in practice this doesn't seem to be occurring for me.

I have a terraform.tfvars file with the following contents:

access_key = "myaccesskey"
secret_key = "mysecretkey"

However, running terraform plan doesn't seem to include those variables:

$ terraform plan
There are warnings and/or errors related to your configuration. Please
fix these before continuing.

Errors:

  * Required variable not set: access_key
  * Required variable not set: secret_key

Running terraform plan -var-file=terraform.tfvars, however, does work:

$ terraform plan -var-file=terraform.tfvars
Refreshing Terraform state prior to plan...


No changes. Infrastructure is up-to-date. This means that Terraform
could not detect any differences between your configuration and
the real physical resources that exist. As a result, Terraform
doesn't need to do anything.

Am I missing something?

[mitchellh]

This is a bug. Thanks.

[gaffneyc]

Since it's not implemented yet, what about considering renaming it to just .tfvars? That way it will be a hidden file on Unix at least.

[mitchellh]

@gaffneyc That's not a bad idea, but would conflict with the fact we use terraform.tfstate as the default state thing. Honestly I wouldn't mind supporting both. For example, with override files (if you've read about those yet), it can be named override.tf or anything endingin _override.tf. I think supporting both wouldn't be too bad here.

[NicolasMas]

Hi all, I reproduced it:

[mitchellh]

Fixed

[alekstorm]

I'm -1 on supporting .tfvars as a hidden file. Sounds like a trap for new users ("where are my variables coming from?").

[seanherron]

@alekstorm it's not a hidden file. For instance, my variables are stored invariables.tfvars.

[alekstorm]

An earlier commenter floated the idea of renaming it to literally .tfvars (see #59 (comment)).

[seanherron]

@alekstorm Ah, see that now, nevermind :) Agree with @mitchellh on the idea of supporting both.

[gaffneyc]

@alekstorm my understanding is that the terraform.tfvars (or my suggested just .tfvars) file would be excluded from source control. It shouldn't be a surprise for new users since they should be putting the file in place themselves.

I agree that supporting both would be good.

[ghost]

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