Use hcl instead of diff after triple backtick

[nitrocode]

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• I'd be willing to implement this feature (contributing guide)

Describe the user story

I'd like to see the same colored output in atlantis' comment as I would locally in my command line

Describe the solution you'd like

Let's use hcl instead of diff after the triple backtick

atlantis/server/events/vcs/azuredevops_client.go

Line 102 in b409cb8

"```diff\n"

atlantis/server/events/vcs/github_client.go

Lines 186 to 192 in b409cb8

	if command != "" {
	sepStart = fmt.Sprintf("Continued %s output from previous comment.\n<details><summary>Show Output</summary>\n\n", command) +
	"```diff\n"
	} else {
	sepStart = "Continued from previous comment.\n<details><summary>Show Output</summary>\n\n" +
	"```diff\n"
	}

Currently we see this using diff

If we use hcl the github comment syntax highlighting would match what we see locally

Describe the drawbacks of your solution

I do not know if azure devops vcs supports the hcl coloring syntax. I know the github vcs does.

Describe alternatives you've considered

• Implement the above and add a flag to override the the text following the triple backtick
• or live with the current implementation

related

• Github diff markdown formatting does not work properly for embedded YAML content #1899
• Add custom comment templating support #2647

[pauloconnor]

I think the reason why diff is used over hcl is due to GitHub handling diff correctly when +. - etc are the first characters of the strings (I kinda broke this working properly #2425)

This is what you'd see if it was working properly

HCL

  # module.redacted.aws_route53_record.redacted_record will be updated in-place
~ resource "aws_route53_record" "redacted_record" {
        fqdn    = "redacted.redacted.redacted.io"
        id      = "redacted_redacted.redacted.redacted.io_A"
        name    = "redacted.redacted.redacted.io"
      ~ records = [
            "foo",
          - "redacted",
        ] -> (known after apply)
        ttl     = 300
        type    = "A"
        zone_id = "redacted"
    }

Diff

  # module.redacted.aws_route53_record.redacted_record will be updated in-place
! resource "aws_route53_record" "redacted_record" {
        fqdn    = "redacted.redacted.redacted.io"
        id      = "redacted_redacted.redacted.redacted.io_A"
        name    = "redacted.redacted.redacted.io"
!       records = [
            "foo",
-           "redacted",
        ] -> (known after apply)
        ttl     = 300
        type    = "A"
        zone_id = "redacted"
    }

[nitrocode]

@pauloconnor hmmm I'm not sure I follow. I would much prefer the hcl syntax than the diff syntax. Are you saying that the hcl syntax doesn't make the deletion as obvious as the diff syntax?

I suppose this is where the custom templating comes in in the next version.

To me, it doesn't make sense why we would use a different syntax than the native hcl. The diff syntax, imho, should be an option and hcl should be preferred.

[pauloconnor]

@nitrocode I think it boils down to diff making changes more obvious than hcl does. Personal preference as to which you prefer.

[nitrocode]

This is a duplicate of #1339 apparently.

Perhaps the best way to implement this then is with a feature flag such as --markdown-plan-color and it can default to diff and set to hcl for people that want to change it. It would also meaning restoring the plan output so its not modified for the diff type.

[rpdelaney]

#1339 was closed with a feature that allows the user to supply their own templates. I'm taking that as a signal that they don't want to do the work to support variants of the templates they already maintain. Edit: ...which is completely fair, to be clear.

[jeska]

👋🏻 This is a feature our team would like to see too. We prefer the output with terraform or hcl formatting rather than diff, and the hard coding of diff means we cannot update the formatting of continued comments. I understand this might be difficult to code around since folks may have various different kinds of templates, but adding a +1 here for supporting a feature similar to this.