Valid tfvars found in sub-directories of root configuration reporting as incorrect syntax

[pro-krastinator]

Extension Version

v2.29.0

VS Code Version

Version: 1.84.2 (user setup)
Commit: 1a5daa3a0231a0fbba4f14db7ec463cf99d7768e
Date: 2023-11-09T10:51:52.184Z
Electron: 25.9.2
ElectronBuildId: 24603566
Chromium: 114.0.5735.289
Node.js: 18.15.0
V8: 11.4.183.29-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19045

Operating System

Edition: Windows 10 Enterprise, Version: 22H2, Build: 19045.3570

Terraform Version

Terraform v1.5.7 on linux_amd64

Steps to Reproduce

The issue is similar to the closed #1574

1. Create simple Terraform configuration
2. Create variables file nonprod/terraform.tfvars

valid tfvars file reporting as having incorrect syntax;

Expected Behavior

Valid HCL tfvars aren't highlighted.

Actual Behavior

Error;
Unexpected attribute: An attribute named "test" is not expected here Terraform

Terraform Configuration

variable "test" {
    type = string
}

output "test" {
  value       = var.test
}

file nonprod/terraform.tfvars

test = "any_text"

Project Structure

.
├── nonprod
│   └── terraform.tfvars
├── output.tf
└── prod
    └── terrafrom.tfvars

2 directories, 3 files

Gist

No response

Anything Else?

No response

Workarounds

Dragging and dropping tfvars into root directory appear to work, syntax highlighting seems to behave as expected.
Reverting to previous version of extension 2.27.2

References

• Valid tfvars found outside of root configuration reporting as incorrect syntax  #1574

Help Wanted

• I'm interested in contributing a fix myself

Community Note

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[radeksimko]

Hi @pro-krastinator
This looks pretty much exactly like a bug we already fixed in #1574 as you noted.

Can you check the bottom bar for some more details? Specifically:

1. version of the language server running
2. language ID chosen/detected for the file

Ideally it should match what you see above, assuming this is on terraform.tfvars.

On a related note, can you double check for any custom terraform.* settings and ensure that for example you didn't specify custom path to the LS (via terraform.languageServer.path) or didn't instruct VS Code to treat *.tfvars files as terraform language (rather than terraform-vars?

[pro-krastinator]

Hi @pro-krastinator This looks pretty much exactly like a bug we already fixed in #1574 as you noted.

Can you check the bottom bar for some more details? Specifically:

1. version of the language server running

2. language ID chosen/detected for the file

Ideally it should match what you see above, assuming this is on terraform.tfvars.

On a related note, can you double check for any custom terraform.* settings and ensure that for example you didn't specify custom path to the LS (via terraform.languageServer.path) or didn't instruct VS Code to treat *.tfvars files as terraform language (rather than terraform-vars?

Yes @radeksimko , you are right, most probably the cause was the line in my settings:

version of the language server running and language ID chosen/detected for the file:

I've forgot I've put it there having older version of vscode-terraform in order to avoid the reporting about incorrect syntax. That time it did the trick though... After updating to 2.29.0 it started to report tfvars again.
Once I removed the line from settings.json, the issue gone. Now the corresponding part looks like this:

    "files.associations": {
        "*.tftpl": "terraform"
    },

I guess, this issue can be closed if you do not need to add anything in regards, just for other community members who might be searching about the same issue.
Thank you for the hint with file associations! 😄

[radeksimko]

I would still suggest you avoid any manual associations of any files (including *.tftpl) with terraform or terraform-vars.

The reason is that AFAICT in VS Code there's no way to tell what exact features you expect to receive for those file types and so what it will attempt to do is to provide all features that go far beyond just highlighting. That includes completion, hover, go-to-definition, diagnostics etc. - and pretty much everything other than syntax highlighting will not be relevant and can even be wrong - just like what you saw with *.tfvars. The simple way of putting it is that there is no resource blocks or data blocks and other language constructs in *.tfvars nor in *.tftpl and the extension will assume there may be if you tell it to treat it as terraform.

Until we build the support for template files (#636) the best solution is:

1. Install the HCL extension
2. Associate template files with hcl language

    "files.associations": {
        "*.tftpl": "hcl"
    }

That HCL extension does not make any assumptions about block or attribute names (unlike the Terraform one) and only provides basic syntax highlighting, which is probably the main feature you're looking for right now anyway.

[github-actions]

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