Terrafile

Terrafile is a binary written in Go to systematically manage external modules from Github for use in Terraform. See this article for more information on how it was introduced in a Ruby rake task.

How to install

macOS

brew tap coretech/terrafile && brew install terrafile

Linux

Download your preferred flavor from the releases page and install manually.

For example:

curl -L https://github.com/coretech/terrafile/releases/download/v{VERSION}/terrafile_{VERSION}_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz | tar xz -C /usr/local/bin

How to use

Terrafile expects a file named Terrafile which will contain your terraform module dependencies in a yaml like format.

There are two approaches that can be used for managing your modules depending on the structure of your terraform code:

1. The default approach: Terrafile is located directly in the directory where terraform is run
2. Centrally managed: Terrafile is located in "root" directory of your terraform code, managing modules in all subfolders / stacks

Default Approach

An example of default approach (#1) to Terrafile

tf-aws-vpc:
    source:  "git@github.com:terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-vpc"
    version: "v1.46.0"
tf-aws-vpc-experimental:
    source:  "git@github.com:terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-vpc"
    version: "master"

Terrafile config file in current directory and modules exported to ./vendor/modules

$ terrafile
INFO[0000] [*] Checking out v1.46.0 of git@github.com:terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-vpc
INFO[0000] [*] Checking out master of git@github.com:terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-vpc

Terrafile config file in custom directory

$ terrafile -f config/Terrafile
INFO[0000] [*] Checking out v1.46.0 of git@github.com:terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-vpc
INFO[0000] [*] Checking out master of git@github.com:terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-vpc

Terraform modules exported to custom directory

$ terrafile -p custom_directory
INFO[0000] [*] Checking out master of git@github.com:terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-vpc
INFO[0001] [*] Checking out v1.46.0 of git@github.com:terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-vpc

Centrally Managed Approach

An example of using Terrafile in a root directory (#2):

Let's assume the following directory structure:

.
├── iam
│   ├── main.tf
│   └── .....tf
├── networking
│   ├── main.tf
│   └── .....tf
├── onboarding
.
.
.
├── some-other-stack
└── Terrafile

In the above scenario, Terrafile is not in every single folder but in the "root" of terraform code.

An example usage of centrally managed modules:

tf-aws-vpc:
    source:  "git@github.com:terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-vpc"
    version: "v1.46.0"
    destination:
        - networking
tf-aws-iam:
    source:  "git@github.com:terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-iam"
    version: "v5.11.1"
    destination:
        - iam
tf-aws-s3-bucket:
    source:  "git@github.com:terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-s3-bucket"
    version: "v3.6.1"
    destination:
        - networking
        - onboarding
        - some-other-stack

The destination of module is an array of directories (stacks) where the module should be used. The module itself is fetched once and copied over to designated destinations. Final destination of the module is handled in a similar way as in first approach: $destination/$module_path/$module_key.

The output of the run is exactly the same in both options.

TODO

• Break out the main logic into seperate commands (e.g. version, help, run)
• Update tests to include unit tests for broken out commands
• Add coverage tool and badge
• May be worth renaming Terrafile config file to something that won't be misinterpreted as the binary