GetSet Should Return an Empty List Instead of nil

[Osazz]

*Bug Report: GetSet Should Return an Empty List Instead of nil
Currently, the GetSet() function in the Terraform Artifactory provider returns nil when no values are present for a given key. This causes Terraform to detect unwanted state drift for attributes like project_environments, which is expected to be an empty list ([]) rather than null. This behavior results in unnecessary updates, where Terraform continuously detects changes and tries to apply them.

Requirements for and issue
Terraform snippet

resource "artifactory_local_rpm_repository" "repository" {
  key                  = "deleteme-rpm-scratch-local"
  repo_layout_ref      = "simple-default"
  project_environments = [] # Explicitly setting empty list

  lifecycle {
    ignore_changes = [project_environments]
  }
}

Observed Terraform Plan Output

Terraform will perform the following actions:

  # artifactory_local_rpm_repository.repository[0] will be updated in-place
  ~ resource "artifactory_local_rpm_repository" "repository" {
      + project_environments = (known after apply)
  }

After apply statefile value

"instances": [
        {
          "index_key": 0,
          "schema_version": 1,
          "attributes": {
            "project_environments": null,
            "project_key": "",
            "yum_root_depth": 0
          },
          "sensitive_attributes": []
        }
      ]

Expected Output

If project_environments is not set, GetSet() should return [], ensuring consistency in Terraform state.

Expected Behavior
When an attribute like project_environments is not explicitly set, GetSet() should return [] instead of nil. This prevents unnecessary state drift and ensures compatibility with Terraform's expected behavior.
Affected Versions

• Artifactory Version: "7.106.3"
• Terraform Version: "v1.9.8"
• Terraform Provider Version: "v12.8.4"

Suggested Fix
Modify the GetSet() function in the provider code to return an empty list instead of nil:

func (d *ResourceData) GetSet(key string) []string {
	if v, ok := d.GetOkExists(key); ok {
		arr := CastToStringArr(v.(*schema.Set).List())
		return arr
	}
	return []string{} // Return an empty list instead of nil
}

But since GetSet is been used by other resources and behaviour might be expected for those, then maybe add an a fix here

func ensureStringSlice(arr []string) []string {
	if arr == nil {
		return []string{} // Return empty slice instead of nil
	}
	return arr
}

change line 306 to

	ProjectEnvironments:    ensureStringSlice(d.GetSet("project_environments")), 

[alexhung]

@Osazz The code you referenced is not being used by local repository since 12.8.0, and by remote repository since 12.8.3 (technically 12.8.2 but I forgot to release it).

The equivalent code is now here.

I'll be updating that to ensure it works for both undefined project_environments attribute as well as value set to [].

[Osazz]

@Osazz The code you referenced is not being used by local repository since 12.8.0, and by remote repository since 12.8.3 (technically 12.8.2 but I forgot to release it).

The equivalent code is now here.

I'll be updating that to ensure it works for both undefined project_environments attribute as well as value set to [].

Okay thanks. Was trying to see where the update will be but cant. Can you please point me to it so I can keep an eye for when it has been updated.

thanks

[alexhung]

@Osazz See jfrog/terraform-provider-artifactory#1201