Packer: min_packer_version JSON key not supported as argument in HCL syntax

[mschuchard]

Overview of the Issue

The min_packer_version key could specify the minimum Packer version for a template in JSON. This does not seem to be currently supported in HCL syntax. Since this seems more like functional metadata, I am not sure where eventually it should ideally be specified.

Reproduction Steps

packer build

Packer version

1.5.6

Simplified Packer Buildfile

source "source" "name" {
  min_packer_version = "1.5.6"
}

or

build {
  min_packer_version = "1.5.6"
}

Operating system and Environment details

Ubuntu 18.04

Log Fragments and crash.log files

Error: Unsupported argument
...
An argument named "min_packer_version" is not expected here.

[azr]

Hey @mschuchard ! Thanks for opening ! I'll make sure to add this to the TODO 🙂. After some thinking I'm thinking of allowing to set this per hcl file at the top-level, for example:

min_packer_version = "1.5.6"
build {
  # ....
}

We would simply check this value if it's set and error/not read the file in case.

[azr]

Update here, I think this should be in a packer block:

packer {
  required_version = ">= 1.2.0, < 2.0.0" // < some selector
}

[mschuchard]

Thank you for expanding upon the original ask, and including the semantic version operator ~> in the expansion.

[hashibot[bot]]

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