Hard to reach terraform_wrapper: false from CDKTF error

[LumaKernel]

Situation

• Run cdktf get in GitHub Actions
  • It's working in local, but show errors like following.

> cdktf get

SyntaxError: Unexpected token c in JSON at position 1
    at JSON.parse (<anonymous>)
    at /home/runner/work/<REDACTED>/node_modules/cdktf-cli/bundle/bin/cmds/handlers.js:94:49074
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
    at async KM (/home/runner/work/<REDACTED>/node_modules/cdktf-cli/bundle/bin/cmds/handlers.js:45:1221)
    at async c$ (/home/runner/work/<REDACTED>/node_modules/cdktf-cli/bundle/bin/cmds/handlers.js:94:48908)
    at async _$.generateTypescriptProvider (/home/runner/work/<REDACTED>/node_modules/cdktf-cli/bundle/bin/cmds/handlers.js:96:6837)
    at async _$.generateTypescript (/home/runner/work/<REDACTED>/node_modules/cdktf-cli/bundle/bin/cmds/handlers.js:96:8841)
    at async Promise.all (index 3)
    at async _$.generate (/home/runner/work/<REDACTED>/node_modules/cdktf-cli/bundle/bin/cmds/handlers.js:99:372)
    at async qDe (/home/runner/work/<REDACTED>/node_modules/cdktf-cli/bundle/bin/cmds/handlers.js:176:8163)
⠹ downloading and generating modules and providers...
SyntaxError: Unexpected token c in JSON at position 1
npm ERR! Lifecycle script `get` failed with error: 
npm ERR! Error: command failed 
npm ERR!   in workspace: <REDACTED> 
npm ERR!   at location: /home/runner/work/<REDACTED>

Here is no hint to know when it gets c character while it's parsing JSON.

I checked handlers.js:94:49074 and I figured out that the original code is this.

https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-cdk/blob/49a7072948a115ef20ea5ebe62f8d04117de81c9/packages/%40cdktf/provider-generator/lib/get/generator/provider-schema.ts#L309-L313

    providerSchema = JSON.parse(
      await exec(terraformBinaryName, ["providers", "schema", "-json"], {
        cwd: outdir,
      })
    ) as ProviderSchema;

Then I tried terraform providers schema -json in GitHub Actions and get it's wrapping the CLI.

$ terraform providers schema -json
[command]/home/runner/work/_temp/e3701105-a0d4-426d-80e2-575b823dd917/terraform-bin providers schema -json
{"format_version":"1.0"}
::debug::Terraform exited with code 0.
::debug::stdout: {"format_version":"1.0"}%0A
::debug::stderr:
::debug::exitcode: 0
::set-output name=stdout::{"format_version":"1.0"}%0A
::set-output name=stderr::
::set-output name=exitcode::0

Now we get the character c is coming from [command]

Solution candidates

I have no right solution for this, but have ideas.

• Defaulting to terraform_wrapper: false
  • simple
• Having 2 binaries, one is terraform which is not wrapped, and one another terraform-wrapped which is wrapped
• Make the ability to force disabling wrapping even if wrapped like with environment var like NO_GHA_TERRAFORM_WRAP=1, and setting this from CDKTF side to prevent this potential unrecognizable barrier for CDKTF starters.

I like third solution. How about that?

[bflad]

Hi @LumaKernel 👋 Thank you for reporting this and sorry you are running into trouble here. Could you please show us the full workflow configuration that led to this particular error?

There have been some internal discussions previously about removing the Terraform wrapper as the default (leaving this action only responsible for installation and, potentially, another action for running commands in the GitHub Actions context with setting outputs, etc).

[OJFord]

Making it default-false at least sounds like an excellent idea - it's hard to discover that it's the cause even simply trying to use terraform output -json | jq.

[iselo]

Hi there. Is any updates on this?
I've got the same error at GitHub Actions on calling toBeValidTerraform() with TypeScript.

const tempOutDir = Testing.fullSynth(terraformStack);
console.log(toBeValidTerraform(tempOutDir).message);
console.log(toPlanSuccessfully(tempOutDir).message);

terraform 1.5.7

1. Ubuntu case (toPlan issue):

Node 18.17.1
Expected subject to be a valid terraform stack: SyntaxError: Unexpected token c in JSON at position 1.
Expected subject not to plan successfully

Node 20.6.1
subject to be a valid terraform stack: SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'c', "[command]/h"... is not valid JSON.
Expected subject not to plan successfully

2. macOS case (toBeValid issue):

Node 18.17.1
Expected subject to be a valid terraform stack: SyntaxError: Unexpected token c in JSON at position 1.
Expected subject to plan successfully: Error: Command failed: terraform plan -input=false -lock=false .

Node 20.6.1
subject to be a valid terraform stack: SyntaxError: Unexpected token 'c', "[command]/U"... is not valid JSON.
Expected subject to plan successfully: Error: Command failed: terraform plan -input=false -lock=false .

It works locally macOS Terraform v1.5.7 on darwin_amd64.

[Danielku15]

This also leads for me to subsequent errors when using the CDK https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-cdk-action

Was hunting down for hours this problem until I realized that this problem is there. I was able to workaround this problem with terraform_wrapper: false. I don't need the outputs.

[austinvalle]

This issue will be fixed in an upcoming v3.0.0 release next week. Please see this comment for more info

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