Importing "terraform show -json <file>" to python

Terraform
1

I am getting an error when trying to import the terraform json output from the "terraform show -json " command. My steps to replicate are as follows:

  • terraform plan -out .\plan.state.tfstate
  • terraform show -json .\plan.state.tfstate > plan.state.show.json

then run the following code in a python script.

import json
#terraform plan -out .\plan.state.tfstate 
#terraform show -json .\plan.state.tfstate > plan.state.show.json
with open('plan.state.show.json', 'r') as jsonfile:
    jsonfile.seek(0)
    data = json.load(jsonfile)
print(json.dumps(data, indent=4))

This returns the following error

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File ".\terraform-validate.py", line 15, in <module>
    data = json.load(jsonfile)
  File "C:\Python38\lib\json\__init__.py", line 293, in load
    return loads(fp.read(),
  File "C:\Python38\lib\json\__init__.py", line 357, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "C:\Python38\lib\json\decoder.py", line 337, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "C:\Python38\lib\json\decoder.py", line 355, in raw_decode
    raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

I am able to import this output into powershell without issue. But I was wondering if someone has run into this prior.

Terraform v0.12.20

  • provider.aws v2.47.0
2

Hi @SQLJames,

Does the content of your plan.state.show.json look like valid JSON if you inspect it directly in a text editor?

I’m wondering if perhaps the command failed for some reason and so the plan.state.show.json file is either empty or contains some non-JSON content, which the Python JSON parser then fails to read.

3

You need to pipe the file into jq before it will become readable like any other json file, otherwise it is only in a format that terraform can read.

terraform show -json tfplan | jq

Then you should be able to read it with json.load().