Provisioners overview

Provisioners use built-in and third-party software to install and configure the machine image after booting. Provisioners prepare the system, so you may want to use them for the following use cases:

• installing packages
• patching the kernel
• creating users
• downloading application code

The following provisioners are included with Packer:

• breakpoint - pause until the user presses Enter to resume a build.
• file - upload files to machines image during a build.
• hcp-sbom - upload an SBOM and associate it with an artifact version in the HCP Packer registry.
• shell - run shell scripts on the machines image during a build.
• shell-local - run shell scripts on the host running Packer during a build.
• powershell - run PowerShell scripts on Windows machine images during a build.
• windows-shell - run commands using cmd on Windows machine images during a build.
• windows-restart - initiate a reboot on a Windows machine images during a build.

Additional Community Supported provisioners are developed and maintained by various members of the community.

Refer to the provisioner block documentation to learn more about working with provisioners.