Installing Packer

Packer is a tool for creating images and multiple image types from a single file.

Manual Installation instructions are well documented on the Packer website. Packer like Terraform, is frequently updated with new features, as well as fixes, which are well documented in its changelog https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md.

Or you could submit your new feature or fix yourself.

Automated Installation options

```mac tab="mac" brew install packer

```powershell tab="powershell"
cinst packer

```bash tab="linux"

!/bin/bash

set -exo curl https://keybase.io/hashicorp/pgp_keys.asc | gpg --import apt-get install unzip VERSION="1.5.2" TOOL="packer" EDITION="linux_amd64" cd /usr/local/bin

Download the binary and signature files.

wget "https://releases.hashicorp.com/$TOOL/$VERSION/${TOOL}_${VERSION}${EDITION}.zip" wget "https://releases.hashicorp.com/$TOOL/$VERSION/${TOOL}${VERSION}_SHA256SUMS" wget "https://releases.hashicorp.com/$TOOL/$VERSION/${TOOL}_${VERSION}_SHA256SUMS.sig"

Verify the signature file is untampered.

gpg --verify "${TOOL}_${VERSION}_SHA256SUMS.sig" "${TOOL}_${VERSION}_SHA256SUMS"

only check against your tool

sed '/linux_amd64/!d' ${TOOL}_${VERSION}SHA256SUMS sed '/linux_amd64/!d' ${TOOL}_${VERSION}_SHA256SUMS > ${TOOL}_${VERSION}${EDITION}_SHA256SUMS

Verify the SHASUM matches the binary.

shasum -a 256 -c "${TOOL}_${VERSION}_${EDITION}_SHA256SUMS"

unzip "${TOOL}_${VERSION}linux_amd64.zip" rm "${TOOL}_${VERSION}_linux_amd64.zip" rm "${TOOL}_${VERSION}_SHA256SUMS" rm "${TOOL}_${VERSION}${EDITION}_SHA256SUMS" rm "${TOOL}_${VERSION}_SHA256SUMS.sig"

"${TOOL}" --version

Brew and Chocolatey repositories for Packer are usually up to date.

Packer is published to **yum** and **apt-get** repositories but these installs
require a substantial number of dependencies and can be quite out of date. At this time for Ubuntu 18 repository has v1.0.3 but v1.5.2 is current.

### Docker container

You can also you use Packer from a container

```docker
$docker pull hashicorp/packer

docker images
REPOSITORY                                                             TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
hashicorp/packer                                                       latest              2453d5a18479        2 weeks ago         167MB

You can run it much line the regular cmdline.

$docker run 2453d5a18479 --version
1.35

Or

$docker run -i -t hashicorp/packer:light validate

You will need to pass in the Packer files by sharing the host folder into Packers Container.

$docker run -v
/c/code/book/packer/01-installing-packer/:/home/docker/
hashicorp/packer:light validate /home/docker/empty.json

But when you run the build:

$docker run -v
/c/code/book/packer/01-installing-packer/:/home/docker/
hashicorp/packer:light build /home/docker/empty.json

You get:

Build 'docker' errored: exec: "docker": executable file not found in
\$PATH

==\> Some builds didn't complete successfully and had errors: --\> docker: exec:
"docker": executable file not found in \$PATH

==\> Builds finished but no artifacts were created.

Which is confusing until you realise/remember that all that's in that container is Packer and not Docker. So while you could use a Packer image to build your containers you'd have to add and customise your own anyway.

Packer from source code

You can build your own, if you are building from source, use at least version 1.12 of go-lang and follow the instructions from their readme.

Assuming you have >= 1.12 golang https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/blob/master/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md#setting-up-go-to-work-on-packer

Just run go get and wait.

go get github.com/hashicorp/packer
cd \$gopath

$ packer -version
1.35