Read terraform version from a .terraformrc file

[nitrocode]

Instead of hard coding the version in the workflow, it would be nice to have it read it from a file similar to how actions/setup-node@v3 reads from .nvmrc

      - name: Setup node
        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version-file: '.nvmrc'

Something like this perhaps ?

      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: hashicorp/setup-terraform@v2
        with:
          terraform_version_file: '.terraformrc'

[jasonhuling]

I second this, but would prefer pulling from .terraform-version or from required_version in the terraform block.

[RichiCoder1]

+1 specifically for .terraform-version. Would be willing to PR that too.

[jgrumboe]

I also believe .terraform-version is better, because tfenv also respects it - so "two birds with one stone" 😁

[marcofranssen]

👍 for the .terraform-version.

[iniinikoski]

Really good idea, to use .terraform-version. Mostly because, .terraformrc is reserved for this use: https://www.terraform.io/cli/config/config-file - and this could create confusion

[karelbemelmans]

It would be nice to have it in the setup action, but for now you can just do it this way:

      - name: Set variables
        run: |
          TF_VERSION=$(cat .terraform-version)
          echo "TF_VERSION=$TF_VERSION" >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: Setup Terraform
        uses: hashicorp/setup-terraform@v2
        with:
          terraform_version: ${{ env.TF_VERSION }}

[nitrocode]

@karelbemelmans that's a good workaround.

I would propose a minor tweak to the version retrieval to allow comments in the file

      - name: Set variables
        run: |
          TF_VERSION=$(grep -vP '^[\s]?#' .terraform-version)
          echo "TF_VERSION=$TF_VERSION" >> $GITHUB_ENV

✗ cat .terraform-version
# this is a good version
1.2.3
✗ grep -vP '^[\s]?#' .terraform-version
1.2.3

[stevehipwell]

@karelbemelmans the spec for .terraform-version supports using a regex to calculate the correct version which isn't compatible with this action or the library used to download Terraform; these both need Terraform compatible version ranges. To support .terraform-version spec regex patterns you'd need an additional step to download the available versions and grep through them (grep -e in the docs).

[tush-tr]

/assign

[jkroepke]

For users who liked to use the required_version block instead .terraform-version file, we are using and offer a action that use-case.

https://github.com/cloudeteer/actions/tree/main/get-terraform-version

[nitrocode]

Very cool! Here is an excerpt from the above.

name: Setup Terraform

jobs:
  terraform:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Get Terraform version
        id: terraform_version
        uses: cloudeteer/actions/get-terraform-version@main

      - name: Setup Terraform
        uses: hashicorp/setup-terraform@v3
        with:
          terraform_version: ${{ steps.terraform_version.output.required_version }}

[filipgolonka]

@nitrocode I think it is worth to keep this issue open, I'd love to see reading terraform version as built-in feature into the standard action

[danielcompton]

Also, for those who don't want to use an extra action, we do this:

      - name: Set Terraform version
        run: |
          TF_VERSION=$(cat .terraform-version)
          echo "TF_VERSION=$TF_VERSION" >> $GITHUB_ENV

      - name: Setup Terraform
        uses: hashicorp/setup-terraform@b9cd54a3c349d3f38e8881555d616ced269862dd # v3.1.2
        with:
          terraform_version: ${{ env.TF_VERSION }}

You could also do something similar with Actions outputs if you preferred that.