v2.1.0: Export block causes `Error: null value is not allowed: [{{} export} {{} directory_permission}]`

[tech-priv]

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Packer Version

1.15.0

Packer Plugin Version

2.1.0

Plugin Builder

• vsphere-iso
• vsphere-clone
• vsphere-supervisor

Plugin Post-Processor

• vsphere
• vsphere-template

vSphere Version

8.0.3.00000

Description

Summary

Since upgrading from v2.0.0 to v2.1.0 of vmware/packer-plugin-vsphere, running packer validate on any template that includes an export {} block now fails with:

Error: null value is not allowed: [{{} export} {{} directory_permission}]

This is a regression since the same template validated and built successfully with v2.0.0. The directory_permission field is tagged required:"false" in the source, so omitting it should be valid.

Packer Configuration

https://gist.github.com/tech-priv/03ac8db0941028d272cd83d25c752bfb

Debug Output

https://gist.github.com/tech-priv/07b0c6adfee7a2124c1ad3deaab46eaa

Panic Output

No response

Expected Behavior

packer validate should succeed. The directory_permission field is documented as optional (required:"false"), so omitting it from the export {} block should be valid and fall back to the documented default of 0750.

This worked correctly with v2.0.0.

Actual Behavior

packer validate fails immediately with:

Error: null value is not allowed: [{{} export} {{} directory_permission}]

The error occurs even though directory_permission is not a required field. Attempts to explicitly supply the value result in further type errors:

• Setting directory_permission = "0755" → Inappropriate value for attribute "directory_permission": bool required.
• Setting directory_permission = true → Error: number value is required
• Setting directory_permission = 0755 → Inappropriate value for attribute "directory_permission": bool required.
• Setting directory_permission = 493 (decimal equivalent of octal 0755) → Inappropriate value for attribute "directory_permission": bool required.

The field appears to cycle between requiring a bool and a number, suggesting the HCL2 spec for this field is incorrectly generated.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install packer-plugin-vsphere v2.1.0:

packer {
  required_version = ">= 1.8.6"
  required_plugins {
    vsphere = {
      version = ">= v2.1.0"
      source  = "github.com/vmware/vsphere"
    }
  }
}

2. Define a vsphere-iso source block with a minimal export {} block (see Gist configuration)
3. Run with:

packer init .
packer validate .

Environment Details

No response

Screenshots

No response

References

No response

[tenthirtyam]

Thanks for reporting this issue. I'll address and issue a patch release.

[tenthirtyam]

This regression was caused in the upgrade of hashicorp/packer-plugin-sdk from 0.6.0 to 0.6.4.

Reference: 7af00cf#diff-73deaec4432c25c32458d08c2ef106f4c2b1f93e238acd806ab23d6a7c35074a

I'll address this and issue a patch release.

[tenthirtyam]

PR #653 will address this.

I'll issue a v2.1.1 shortly once the tests pass.

TL;DR: It was an issue with an update to hashicorp/packer-plugin-sdk v0.6.5 along with Go 1.24, which it required. I'll work with the team at HashiCorp to address the issue in the dependency.