Problem with accessing a file that is created during dflook/terraform-apply@v1

[DawidNiezgodka]

I have a problem with accessing a file that is created during the dflook/terraform-apply@v1 run through local_file resource:

resource "local_file" "hosts_cfg" {
  content = templatefile("${path.module}/templates/hosts.tpl",
    {
      vm_info       = flatten([for v in module.deployment : v.instance_info])
      configuration = var.configuration
    }
  )
  filename = "${var.gha_workspace}/hosts.cfg"
}

According to the log, the file is created when running the command:

  # local_file.hosts_cfg will be created
  + resource "local_file" "hosts_cfg" ***
      + content              = <<-EOT
            [zookeeper-nodes]
            zoo1 ansible_host=1.2.3.4 zookeeper_id=1
            [kafka-nodes]
            zoo1 ansible_host=1.2.3.4
            [wg]
            wg1 ansible_host=1.2.3.4
        EOT
      + directory_permission = "0777"
      + file_permission      = "0777"
      + filename             = "/home/runner/work/Repo/Repo/hosts.cfg"
      + id                   = (known after apply)
    ***

-------
local_file.hosts_cfg: Creating...
local_file.hosts_cfg: Creation complete after 0s [id=123]

To my surprise, when I try to access the file using

      - name: Upload created inventory file
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
        with:
          name: inventory file
          path: ${{ github.workspace }}/hosts.cfg

I receive the message:

Warning: No files were found with the provided path: /home/runner/work/Repo/Repo/hosts.cfg. No artifacts will be uploaded.

I modified my workflow and added a step that shows me the project tree after calling dflook/terraform-apply@v1. It turns out that the file that was supposedly created does not appear in the list of folders and files shown by using tree.

I started wondering if this problem might be related to the fact that dflook/terraform-apply@v1 is a docker-based action and the file is being deleted before it's even saved.
On the other hand, doesn't Terraform verify the path specified in the file name attribute (filename = "/home/runner/work/Repo/Repo/hosts.cfg")?

What can I do to access the file and save it using upload-artifact?

[dflook]

Your are right, this is because these are docker based actions.

The github workspace is mounted in /home/runner/work/ on a github hosted runner, and at /github/workspace in the container. The GITHUB_WORKSPACE environment variable will always be set to correct path depending on if you are on the host or in a container - but if you take the value of GITHUB_WORKSPACE on the host and pass it into a docker action, it will point at the wrong path.

The best way to solve this would be to specify your path relative to the terraform root module using path.root in the terraform code.

resource "local_file" "hosts_cfg" {
  content = templatefile("${path.module}/templates/hosts.tpl",
    {
      vm_info       = flatten([for v in module.deployment : v.instance_info])
      configuration = var.configuration
    }
  )
  filename = "${path.root}/hosts.cfg"
}

The directory specified by the path action input is at path.root in the container, so you can use it like this:

- name: Terraform apply
  uses: dflook/terraform-apply@v1
  with:
    path: terraform

- name: Upload created inventory file
  uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
  with:
    name: inventory file
    path: terraform/hosts.cfg