Yamlencode function includes heredoc anchors in output

[rojopolis]

Terraform Version

0.14.0 - 0.14.2

Terraform Configuration Files

output "yaml" {
  value = yamlencode({ foo = "bar" })
}

Debug Output

Crash Output

Expected Behavior

Output valid yaml as previous Terraform versions do.

Actual Behavior

tf output yaml
<<EOT
"foo": "bar"

EOT

Steps to Reproduce

terraform init
terraform apply
terraform output yaml

Additional Context

References

[danieldreier]

Thank you for reporting this! I've reproduced this exactly as reported in 0.14.2.

[alisdair]

Hi @rojopolis, thanks for reporting this.

The yamlencode function returns a string, which is then displayed by terraform output as a heredoc because it has multiple lines. We changed the format of terraform output in 0.14 to make it clearer what type values were, and to allow the output value to be used directly in HCL.

It sounds like you're trying to use this output in an automated setting, where the heredoc markers make this difficult. We do not support using the terraform output text UI in automation, and instead suggest using the stable JSON output. For example:

$ terraform output -json yaml | jq -r
"foo": "bar"

In an upcoming 0.14 patch release we are also adding a -raw flag to terraform output, which would also be an option here:

$ terraform output -raw yaml
"foo": "bar"

See #27212 for more details on -raw.

I'm marking this closed as Terraform is working as designed, and there are two workarounds described above. Thanks again for reporting!

[ghost]

I'm going to lock this issue because it has been closed for 30 days ⏳. This helps our maintainers find and focus on the active issues.

If you have found a problem that seems similar to this, please open a new issue and complete the issue template so we can capture all the details necessary to investigate further.