Upgrade to v1.11

This topic describes upgrade considerations for Packer v1.11. Refer to the v1.11 release notes for details about changes in v1.11.

Overview

You can use the upgrade command for the package manager you installed Packer with or download and replace the existing binary to upgrade Packer. Refer to Install Packer for instructions

Upgrade from 1.10

Take the following actions as a result of changes between v1.10 and v1.11.

Review templates

Packer v1.11 supports existing v1.10 templates. No action is required.

Review plugin management processes

Because we have made the following changes to how Packer manages plugins, you should review your plugin management processes and make changes accordingly:

Single-component plugins are no longer supported. Update your dependencies to multi-component plugins. For example, update packer-builder-hashicups-coffee to packer-plugin-hashicups.
Packer requires all plugins to be installed in the plugins directory. Plugins must follow the hierarchy that matches the expected source. Plugins must follow the packer-plugin-<name> naming convention. Plugins must be accompanied by a SHA256SUM file. If you manage plugin installations outside of Packer's plugin directory, modify your installation processes to meet these requirements. Refer to Install Plugins for additional information.
Packer requires semantic versioning for plugins installed from Packer HCL2 templates. Refer to Requirements in the Packer plugin installation documentation for additional information.
You can use -dev pre-release versions of plugins in your builds using the packer plugins install --path command. Refer to Use a plugin under development.
You can use the packer plugins install --path command to install plugins from non-Github hosts. This command installs the plugin in the Packer plugin directory and creates the file hierarchy that matches the supplied source. As result, Packer is able to discover non-Github sources specified in the required_plugins blocks. This enables you to add version constraints on those plugins if you so choose. Although you can add non-GitHub sources to required_plugins for validation purposes, remote installation is still limited to Github-sourced plugins. Refer to Define plugin source in the required_plugins reference documentation for additional information.

Troubleshooting

This section provides guidance on potential issues you may experience after upgrading.

Missing plugins error

Packer may report that you one or more plugins are missing after the upgrade. This may occur if you had used one of the following plugin installation methods that are longer supported:

Installed the plugin to the directory Packer is invoked from.
Installed the plugin alongside the Packer binary.
Installed the plugin under the root of the PACKER_PLUGIN_PATH directory.

For any missing components, you may need to reinstall their respective plugins as described in Installing Plugins.

Use `required_plugins` message

Packer may print a message directing you to specify plugins in the required_plugins block in your template and install them using the packer init command. This is the preferred way to manage the plugins, but it is not required. You can still install plugins manually using the packer plugins install command. Refer to Installing Plugins

Blocked remote access to plugin

If you cannot remotely install a plugin for any reason, such as a firewall configuration or GitHub is blocking access, you can use the local installation methods. Refer to Installing Plugins

Install plugins from legacy JSON template

The required_plugins block is only available within HCL templates. Legacy JSON users must use packer plugins install

Installing plugins outside of namespace directories

Packer no longer supports installing plugins that are named packer-plugin-<name> under a single root directory. You can still use Packer CLI commands to install plugins and customise which root directory manages those plugins by setting the PACKER_PLUGIN_PATH environment variable so that it points to the custom directory. Once set, Packer automatically creates the subdirectories that match the sources of the plugins under that directory.

Reference

Refer to the following topics for additional information about using the Packer CLI to install plugins: