packer1

Overview

Packer is a CLI tool for the automatic creation of identical machine images (single deployable units that contain a pre-configured OS and installed software) for multiple platforms (public cloud providers, private cloud and desktop virtualization solutions) from a single JSON template configuration file. For the documentation of Packer, especially on how to write proper Packer templates, please see <https://www.packer.io/docs>.

Commands

build

build image(s) from a template. For a full list of options related to this command, see the output of: $ packer build -h.

fix

fix templates from old versions of Packer like this: $ packer fix old.json > new.json. For a full list of fixes which this command performs and special options, see the output of: $ packer fix -h.

inspect

print components of a template. This command validates the basic syntax of the template by necessity, but not if the configuration is valid (this is what the command validate is for).

validate

check if a template is valid. The command returns a zero exit status if a template is valid, and a non-zero exit status if it isn't. If -syntax-only is given as option, only the syntax of the template is checked.

version

print the Packer version

Logging

To get a build log, run packer like this: $ PACKER_LOG=1 packer build foo.json 2>>build.log, or use $PACKER_LOG_PATH.

Environment

For a full list of available environment variables, see <https://www.packer.io/docs/other/environmental-variables.html>.