Feature request: Comma separated builder "name" list for defining multiple, similar builds.

[curiositycasualty]

This would be a feature whereby a single builder could define multiple, similar builds by housing a comma-separated list (or JSON array) of build names in that builder's name property:

    {
      "name": "alpha-aws,beta-aws",
      "tags": {
        "A": "long",
        "list": "of",
        "tags": "that",
        "apply": "to",
        "multiple": "builds."
      },
      "type": "amazon-ebs"
    }

Or even: ... "name": ["alpha-aws", "beta-aws"] ...

Such that both of the two builds would share the tags property.

Customizing specifics of these builds could be accomplished through the user of the override property (assuming that functionality would be added for builders):

    {
      "name": [
        "alpha-aws",
        "beta-aws"
      ],
      "tags": {
        "A": "long",
        "list": "of",
        "tags": "that",
        "apply": "to",
        "multiple": "builds."
      },
      "override": {
        "alpha-aws": {
          "tags": {
            "A": "different",
            "set": "of",
            "tags": "."
          }
        }
      },
      "type": "amazon-ebs"
    }

[SwampDragons]

This is a cool idea, and I think it actually falls in line with some of the thinking we've been doing around what Packer 2.0 will look like. I think it's unlikely that we'll be getting to it any time in the next year though.

[azr]

Hello there ! With HCL2 it is now possible to have tags variable and reuse these tags in sources:

variable "my_tags" {
  default = {
   A  = "bunch"
   Of = "tags
  }
}

source "amazon-ebs" "example" {
  # config
}

build {
  source "amazon-ebs.example" {
    name = "alpha-aws"
    tags = var.tags
  }
  source "amazon-ebs.example" {
    name = "beta-aws"
    tags = var.tags
  }

  # ... provision

}

Closing this issue as it should just work, cheers ! 🎉

[ghost]

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