Terraform content parser to extract variables before plan

Terraform
1

Is there any library using which we can extract information about variables used in terraform scripts?

I see “terraform-config-inspect” as a utility but it gives only from that folder which is used in that but does not go into child modules. We can do that recursively but looking for a readymade library? or any other approach to get all variables used in terraform script that I can get before running the plan?

I can also write an antlr4 parser to do that by simply reading the variables block in all files under that folder but in that, I won’t know unused files/modules which are present inside the folder.

2

If you want to know about variables you can input into a Terraform execution, then the ones in the top level folder are the only ones.

All variables in child modules, are solely provided by arguments in those module blocks.

3

Thanks @maxb for the response,

Does terraform-config-inspect have any limitations or restrictions in fetching variables for different terraform scripts, folders, or files? or any terraform versions
or it will work with all terraform versions and scripts

4

That question is so broad, I don’t have an answer to it.

5

No issues Thanks @maxb

Another query :slight_smile: Does terraform config inspect perform validation also like the “terraform validate” command or do we need to do validation first and then run “terraform-config-inspect explicitly”?

6

terraform-config-inspect is only capable of shallow syntax analysis.

It does not include any expression evaluation logic, and so it cannot implement anything equivalent to terraform validate. If terraform-config-inspect returns errors during loading then they will be only syntax errors, and not semantic errors.

7

Thanks @apparentlymart