[Plugin Development] How to run acc tests in VSCode to use advanced debugging features

Packer
1

I also have this opened as a github issue

This is my first time developing a Packer builder and I’m trying to debug an issue in my code. With Terraform Provider development I have a setup for vscode debuging which exposes runtime variables and allows me to declare break points, step into / over /out of functions, etc.

Using the below launch.json I can run a test in debug mode. However, its not finding my plugin:

2024/04/09 16:09:46 ui error: Error: Unknown source type harvester-img

  on ./harvester_builder_basic_test.pkr.hcl line 10:
  (source code not available)

known builders: [docker googlecompute virtualbox-ovf qemu amazon-ebssurrogate
amazon-ebs amazon-ebsvolume virtualbox-iso vagrant azure-dtl vsphere-clone
azure-chroot amazon-chroot file vsphere-iso vmware-iso vmware-vmx
amazon-instance null azure-arm virtualbox-vm]

Launch.json

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Launch a test function",
            "type": "go",
            "request": "launch",
            "mode": "auto",
            "program": "${fileDirname}",
            "env": { "PACKER_ACC": "true"}, 
            "args": [
                "-test.v",
                "-test.run",
                "^${selectedText}$"
            ],
            "showLog": true
        }
    ]
}

This seems to indicate to me that its looking for a pre-compiled binary… so if i add the PACKER_PLUGIN_PATH it can find the binary. HOWEVER, then its not actually using my source which means it doesnt respect break points…

            "env": { "PACKER_ACC": "true", "PACKER_PLUGIN_PATH": "${workspaceFolder}/"},

Yall have any idea how i can configure VSCode to compile this as part of the test run and use break points, etc?

2

Discovery: it seems that part of the reason that i cannot get packer to test the source is because the test apparatus invokes the shell commands… seems as though packer is always trying to use binaries instead of the source: packer-plugin-sdk/acctest/pluginacc.go at main · hashicorp/packer-plugin-sdk · GitHub

3

After doing some more research I am closing this issue and will solicit feedback via a new issue: [Plugin Development] How can i debug my step functions