Support folder-level -var-file setting

[anilkumarmyla]

Versions

Extension

v2.26.1

Problem Statement

We have an unorthodox file structure for terraform project as follows

├── backend.tf
├── main.tf
├── tfvars
│   ├── dev.tfvars
│   ├── prod.tfvars
│   └── stage.tfvars
├── variables.tf
└── versions.tf

where we store tfvars for different environments in a subfolder and pass them to terraform plan as -var-file tfvars/{env}.tfvars.

This workflow works fair but with vscode references to variables don't show anything from tfvars/{env}.tfvars since the extension expects tfvars to be in the same folder. If we move the tfvars files up one level where the root module is, vscode does indeed show the references in {env}.tfvars files. But moving these files one level above clutters the project with too many files and distinction between config and code is lost.

Expected User Experience

Reference to tfvars file in a subfolder should be resolved and shown

Proposal

Don't have enough knowledge on the internals to propose something

References

#636 has resolved tfvars support but that only works if tfvars files are in root module folder

[radeksimko]

Hi @anilkumarmyla
I wouldn't say the directory structure is unorthodox. That said, it does make it more difficult for the IDE/LS to understand the relationship, as technically every folder/level is a different module.

I'm afraid that there isn't any good way of making this work "out of the box" the way you suggest where "go-to-reference/definition" brings up the relationship between your tfvars/*.tfvars and variables in *.tf as that would mean that all *.tfvars files anywhere in the workspace hierarchy are potentially candidates for any variable anywhere. For workspaces with deep hierarchies this would likely result in a confusing UX with lots of false positives.

---

I'm curious if having some settings and/or environment variables to give the extension/LS hints would be a good compromise?

I'm wondering how do your team members know how exactly to execute plan or apply, i.e. what exact -var-file to pass and when? Do you have this codified anywhere?

[anilkumarmyla]

@radeksimko Thanks for the quick response

I'm curious if having some settings and/or environment variables to give the extension/LS hints would be a good compromise?

Yes, this would be a good comprose like say scan this subdirectory for this root-module for additional files, something along the lines of terraform.languageServer.rootModules (which I tried and got deprecated warning)

I'm wondering how do your team members know how exactly to execute plan or apply, i.e. what exact -var-file to pass and when? Do you have this codified anywhere?

Our automation takes care of substituting the right var-file for supported environments, most team members only work on the dev environment where they have sufficient privileges, rest of them are handled by automation