Allow HTTPIP, HTTPPort, Name to be referenced from user variables

[mcandre]

I would like to move my boot_command value up into my packer user variables section, but I need to be able to reference {{ .HTTPIP }}, {{ .HTTPPort }}, and {{ .Name }} within the boot_command string. Could packer make these pre-defined variables able to be inserted into strings during user variable declaration?

[rickard-von-essen]

Thanks for reporting this. This is a duplicate of #4387, closing this in favor of that.

[akutz]

I'm not sure this is a duplicate. Trying to use the above variables in a user variables section causes an error with Packer 1.4.1:

{
  "build_name": "centos-7a",
  "distro_name": "centos",
  "os_display_name": "CentOS 7",
  "guest_os_type": "centos-64",
  "iso_url": "http://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/7.6.1810/isos/x86_64/CentOS-7-x86_64-NetInstall-1810.iso",
  "iso_checksum": "d74ea11d73e7183fbbd8dcdc4f1a74a5",
  "iso_checksum_type": "md5",
  "ssh_username": "centos",
  "ssh_password": "centos",
  "boot_command": "<tab> text ks=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/7/ks.cfg<enter><wait>",
  "goss_vars_file": "goss/redhat-vars.yaml"
}

$ packer build -var-file kubernetes.json -var-file centos-7.json packer.json
centos-7a output will be in this color.

render 'packer_user_variables': template: root:1:24: executing "root" at <.HTTPIP>: can't evaluate field HTTPIP in type *ansible.PassthroughTemplate in:

<tab> text ks=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/7/ks.cfg<enter><wait>

[akutz]

Hi all,

I think I have a work-around that appears to be working:

      "boot_command": [
        "{{user `boot_command_prefix`}}",
        "http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}",
        "{{user `boot_command_suffix`}}"
      ],

I just have to define any prefix and suffix data for the boot command as part of the user variables, and formatting the above like so in the proper packer.json results in the correct interpolation.

[ghost]

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