---
description: |
  The `shell-local` post-processor starts a local shell, letting you automate post-build actions after Packer builds your artifacts.
page_title: shell-local post-processor reference
---

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# `shell-local` post-processor

The `shell-local` post processor executes scripts locally during the post
processing stage. Shell local provides a convenient way to automate executing
some task with packer outputs and variables.

## Basic example

The example below is a fully functional self-contained build.

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

```hcl
source "file" "example" {
    content = "example content"
}

build {
  source "source.file.example" {
    target = "./test_artifact.txt"
  }

  post-processor "shell-local" {
    inline = ["echo foo"]
  }
}
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="JSON">

```json
{
  "builders": [
    {
      "type": "file",
      "name": "example",
      "target": "./test_artifact.txt",
      "content": "example content"
    }
  ],
  "post-processors": [
    {
      "type": "shell-local",
      "inline": ["echo foo"]
    }
  ]
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

## Configuration Reference

The reference of available configuration options is listed below. The only
required element is either "inline" or "script". Every other option is
optional.

Exactly _one_ of the following is required:

- `command` (string) - This is a single command to execute. It will be
  written to a temporary file and run using the `execute_command` call below.

- `inline` (array of strings) - This is an array of commands to execute. The
  commands are concatenated by newlines and turned into a single file, so
  they are all executed within the same context. This allows you to change
  directories in one command and use something in the directory in the next
  and so on. Inline scripts are the easiest way to pull off simple tasks
  within the machine.

- `script` (string) - The path to a script to execute. This path can be
  absolute or relative. If it is relative, it is relative to the working
  directory when Packer is executed.

- `scripts` (array of strings) - An array of scripts to execute. The scripts
  will be executed in the order specified. Each script is executed in
  isolation, so state such as variables from one script won't carry on to the
  next.

Optional parameters:

- `env` (map of strings) - A map of key/value pairs to inject prior to the
  execute_command. Packer injects some environmental variables by default into
  the environment, as well, which are covered in the section below. Duplicate
  `env` settings override `environment_vars` settings.

- `environment_vars` (array of strings) - An array of key/value pairs to
  inject prior to the `execute_command`. The format should be `key=value`.
  Packer injects some environmental variables by default into the
  environment, as well, which are covered in the section below.

- `env_var_format` (string) - When we parse the environment_vars that you
  provide, this gives us a string template to use in order to make sure that
  we are setting the environment vars correctly. By default on Windows hosts
  this format is `set %s=%s &&` and on Unix, it is `%s='%s'`. You probably
  won't need to change this format, but you can see usage examples for where
  it is necessary below.

- `execute_command` (array of strings) - The command used to execute the
  script. By default, on \*nix systems this is:

  ```text
  ["/bin/sh", "-c", "{{.Vars}} {{.Script}}"]
  ```

  While on Windows, `execute_command` defaults to:

  ```text
  ["cmd", "/V", "/C", "{{.Vars}}", "call", "{{.Script}}"]
  ```

  This is treated as a [template engine](/packer/docs/templates/legacy_json_templates/engine).
  There are several available variables: `Script`, which is the path to the
  script to run, and `Vars`, which is the list of `environment_vars`, if
  configured. In addition, you may access any of the variables stored in the
  generated data using the [build](/packer/docs/templates/legacy_json_templates/engine) template
  function. If you choose to set this option, make sure that the first
  element in the array is the shell program you want to use (for example,
  "sh" or "/usr/local/bin/zsh" or even "powershell.exe" although anything
  other than a flavor of the shell command language is not explicitly
  supported and may be broken by assumptions made within Packer). It's
  worth noting that if you choose to try to use shell-local for
  Powershell or other Windows commands, the environment variables will
  not be set properly for your environment.

  For backwards compatibility, `execute_command` will accept a string instead
  of an array of strings. If a single string or an array of strings with only
  one element is provided, Packer will replicate past behavior by appending
  your `execute_command` to the array of strings `["sh", "-c"]`. For example,
  if you set `"execute_command": "foo bar"`, the final `execute_command` that
  Packer runs will be \["sh", "-c", "foo bar"\]. If you set
  `"execute_command": ["foo", "bar"]`, the final execute_command will remain
  `["foo", "bar"]`.

  Again, the above is only provided as a backwards compatibility fix; we
  strongly recommend that you set execute_command as an array of strings.

- `inline_shebang` (string) - The
  [shebang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebang_%28Unix%29) value to use
  when running commands specified by `inline`. By default, this is
  `/bin/sh -e`. If you're not using `inline`, then this configuration has no
  effect. **Important:** If you customize this, be sure to include something
  like the `-e` flag, otherwise individual steps failing won't fail the
  provisioner.

- `keep_input_artifact` (boolean) - Unlike most other post-processors, the
  keep_input_artifact option will have no effect for the shell-local
  post-processor. Packer will always retain the input artifact for
  shell-local, since the shell-local post-processor merely passes forward the
  artifact it receives. If your shell-local post-processor produces a file or
  files which you would like to have replace the input artifact, you may
  overwrite the input artifact using the [artifice](/packer/docs/post-processors/artifice)
  post-processor after your shell-local processor has run.

- `only_on` (array of strings) - This is an array of [runtime operating
  systems](https://go.dev/doc/install/source#environment) where
  `shell-local` will execute. This allows you to execute `shell-local` _only_
  on specific operating systems. By default, shell-local will always run if
  `only_on` is not set."

- `use_linux_pathing` (bool) - This is only relevant to Windows hosts. If you
  are running Packer in a Windows environment with the Windows Subsystem for
  Linux feature enabled, and would like to invoke a bash script rather than
  invoking a Cmd script, you'll need to set this flag to true; it tells
  Packer to use the Linux subsystem path for your script rather than the
  Windows path. (e.g. /mnt/c/path/to/your/file instead of
  C:/path/to/your/file). Please see the example below for more guidance on
  how to use this feature. If you are not on a Windows host, or you do not
  intend to use the shell-local post-processor to run a bash script, please
  ignore this option. If you set this flag to true, you still need to provide
  the standard Windows path to the script when providing a `script`. This is
  a beta feature.

- `valid_exit_codes` (list of ints) - Valid exit codes for the script. By
  default this is `0`.

## Execute Command

To many new users, the `execute_command` is puzzling. However, it provides an
important function: customization of how the command is executed. The most
common use case for this is dealing with **sudo password prompts**. You may
also need to customize this if you use a non-POSIX shell, such as `tcsh` on
FreeBSD.

### The Windows Linux Subsystem

The shell-local post-processor was designed with the idea of allowing you to
run commands in your local operating system's native shell. For Windows, we've
assumed in our defaults that this is Cmd. However, it is possible to run a bash
script as part of the Windows Linux Subsystem from the shell-local
post-processor, by modifying the `execute_command` and the `use_linux_pathing`
options in the post-processor config.

The example below is a fully functional test config.

One limitation of this offering is that "inline" and "command" options are not
available to you; please limit yourself to using the "script" or "scripts"
options instead.

Please note that this feature is still in beta, as the underlying WSL is also
still in beta. There will be some limitations as a result. For example, it will
likely not work unless both Packer and the scripts you want to run are both on
the C drive.

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

```hcl
source "null" "example" {
    communicator = "none"
}

build {
    sources = [
        "source.null.example"
    ]

    post-processor "shell-local"{
        environment_vars  = ["PROVISIONERTEST=ProvisionerTest1"]
        execute_command   = ["bash", "-c", "{{.Vars}} {{.Script}}"]
        use_linux_pathing = true
        scripts           = ["C:/Users/me/scripts/example_bash.sh"]
    }
    post-processor "shell-local"{
        environment_vars  = ["PROVISIONERTEST=ProvisionerTest2"]
        execute_command   = ["bash", "-c", "{{.Vars}} {{.Script}}"]
        use_linux_pathing = true
        script            = "C:/Users/me/scripts/example_bash.sh"
    }
}
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="JSON">

```json
{
  "builders": [
    {
      "type": "null",
      "communicator": "none"
    }
  ],
  "post-processors": [
    {
      "type": "shell-local",
      "environment_vars": ["PROVISIONERTEST=ProvisionerTest1"],
      "execute_command": ["bash", "-c", "{{.Vars}} {{.Script}}"],
      "use_linux_pathing": true,
      "scripts": ["C:/Users/me/scripts/example_bash.sh"]
    },
    {
      "type": "shell-local",
      "environment_vars": ["PROVISIONERTEST=ProvisionerTest2"],
      "execute_command": ["bash", "-c", "{{.Vars}} {{.Script}}"],
      "use_linux_pathing": true,
      "script": "C:/Users/me/scripts/example_bash.sh"
    }
  ]
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

## Default Environmental Variables

In addition to being able to specify custom environmental variables using the
`environment_vars` configuration, the provisioner automatically defines certain
commonly useful environmental variables:

- `PACKER_BUILD_NAME` is set to the [name of the
  build](/packer/docs/templates/legacy_json_templates/builders#named-builds) that Packer is running.
  This is most useful when Packer is making multiple builds and you want to
  distinguish them slightly from a common provisioning script.

- `PACKER_BUILDER_TYPE` is the type of the builder that was used to create
  the machine that the script is running on. This is useful if you want to
  run only certain parts of the script on systems built with certain
  builders.

## Safely Writing A Script

Whether you use the `inline` option, or pass it a direct `script` or `scripts`,
it is important to understand a few things about how the shell-local
post-processor works to run it safely and easily. This understanding will save
you much time in the process.

### Once Per Builder

The `shell-local` script(s) you pass are run once per builder. This means that
if you have an `amazon-ebs` builder and a `docker` builder, your script will be
run twice. If you have 3 builders, it will run 3 times, once for each builder.

### Interacting with Build Artifacts

In order to interact with build artifacts, you may want to use the [manifest
post-processor](/packer/docs/post-processors/manifest). This will write the list
of files produced by a `builder` to a json file after each `builder` is run.

For example, if you wanted to package a file from the file builder into a
tarball, you might write this:

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="JSON">

```json
{
  "builders": [
    {
      "content": "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet",
      "target": "dummy_artifact",
      "type": "file"
    }
  ],
  "post-processors": [
    [
      {
        "output": "manifest.json",
        "strip_path": true,
        "type": "manifest"
      },
      {
        "inline": [
          "jq \".builds[].files[].name\" manifest.json | xargs tar cfz artifacts.tgz"
        ],
        "type": "shell-local"
      }
    ]
  ]
}
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

```hcl
source "file" "example" {
    content = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet"
    target  = "dummy_artifact.txt"
}
build {
  sources = [
    "source.file.example"
  ]
  post-processor "manifest" {
    output     = "manifest.json"
    strip_path = true
  }

  post-processor "shell-local" {
    inline = [
        "jq \".builds[].files[].name\" manifest.json | xargs tar cfz artifacts.tgz"
    ]
  }
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

This uses the [jq](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/) tool to extract all of the
file names from the manifest file and passes them to tar.

### Always Exit Intentionally

If any post-processor fails, the `packer build` stops and all interim artifacts
are cleaned up.

For a shell script, that means the script **must** exit with a zero code. You
_must_ be extra careful to `exit 0` when necessary.

## Usage Examples:

### Windows Host

Example of running a .cmd file on Windows:

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

```hcl
post-processor "shell-local" {
  environment_vars = ["SHELLLOCALTEST=ShellTest1"]
  scripts          = ["./scripts/test_cmd.cmd"]
}
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="JSON">

```json
{
  "type": "shell-local",
  "environment_vars": ["SHELLLOCALTEST=ShellTest1"],
  "scripts": ["./scripts/test_cmd.cmd"]
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

Contents of `test_cmd.cmd`:

    echo %SHELLLOCALTEST%

Example of running an inline command on Windows: Required customization:
tempfile_extension

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

```hcl
post-processor "shell-local" {
  environment_vars   = ["SHELLLOCALTEST=ShellTest2"],
  tempfile_extension = ".cmd",
  inline             = ["echo %SHELLLOCALTEST%"]
}
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="JSON">

```json
{
  "type": "shell-local",
  "environment_vars": ["SHELLLOCALTEST=ShellTest2"],
  "tempfile_extension": ".cmd",
  "inline": ["echo %SHELLLOCALTEST%"]
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

Example of running a bash command on Windows using WSL: Required
customizations: `use_linux_pathing` and `execute_command`:

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

```hcl
post-processor "shell-local" {
  environment_vars  = ["SHELLLOCALTEST=ShellTest3"],
  execute_command   = ["bash", "-c", "{{.Vars}} {{.Script}}"]
  use_linux_pathing = true
  script            = "./scripts/example_bash.sh"
}
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="JSON">

```json
{
  "type": "shell-local",
  "environment_vars": ["SHELLLOCALTEST=ShellTest3"],
  "execute_command": ["bash", "-c", "{{.Vars}} {{.Script}}"],
  "use_linux_pathing": true,
  "script": "./scripts/example_bash.sh"
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

Contents of `example_bash.sh`:

    #!/bin/bash
    echo $SHELLLOCALTEST

Example of running a PowerShell script on Windows:
Required customizations: `env_var_format` and `execute_command`.

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

```hcl
post-processor "shell-local" {
  environment_vars = ["SHELLLOCALTEST=ShellTest4"]
  execute_command  = ["powershell.exe", "{{.Vars}} {{.Script}}"]
  env_var_format   = "$env:%s=\"%s\"; "
  script           = "./scripts/example_ps.ps1"
}
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="JSON">

```json
{
  "type": "shell-local",
  "environment_vars": ["SHELLLOCALTEST=ShellTest4"],
  "execute_command": ["powershell.exe", "{{.Vars}} {{.Script}}"],
  "env_var_format": "$env:%s=\"%s\"; ",
  "script": "./scripts/example_ps.ps1"
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

Example of running a PowerShell script on Windows as "inline": Required
customizations: `env_var_format`, `tempfile_extension`, and `execute_command`

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

```hcl
post-processor "shell-local" {
  tempfile_extension = ".ps1"
  environment_vars   = ["SHELLLOCALTEST=ShellTest5"]
  execute_command    = ["powershell.exe", "{{.Vars}} {{.Script}}"]
  env_var_format     = "$env:%s=\"%s\"; "
  inline             = ["write-output $env:SHELLLOCALTEST"]
}
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="JSON">

```json
{
  "type": "shell-local",
  "tempfile_extension": ".ps1",
  "environment_vars": ["SHELLLOCALTEST=ShellTest5"],
  "execute_command": ["powershell.exe", "{{.Vars}} {{.Script}}"],
  "env_var_format": "$env:%s=\"%s\"; ",
  "inline": ["write-output $env:SHELLLOCALTEST"]
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

### Unix Host

Example of running a Shell script on Unix:

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

```hcl
post-processor "shell-local" {
  environment_vars = ["PROVISIONERTEST=ProvisionerTest1"]
  scripts = ["./scripts/example_bash.sh"]
}
```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="JSON">

```json
{
  "type": "shell-local",
  "environment_vars": ["PROVISIONERTEST=ProvisionerTest1"],
  "scripts": ["./scripts/example_bash.sh"]
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

Example of running a bash "inline" on Unix:

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

```hcl
post-processor "shell-local" {
  environment_vars = ["PROVISIONERTEST=ProvisionerTest2"]
  inline           = ["echo hello", "echo $PROVISIONERTEST"]
}

```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="JSON">

```json
{
  "type": "shell-local",
  "environment_vars": ["PROVISIONERTEST=ProvisionerTest2"],
  "inline": ["echo hello", "echo $PROVISIONERTEST"]
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

Example of running a Python script on Unix:

<Tabs>
<Tab heading="HCL2">

```hcl
post-processor "shell-local" {
  script           = "hello.py"
  environment_vars = ["HELLO_USER=packeruser"]
  execute_command  = [
    "/bin/sh",
    "-c",
    "{{.Vars}} /usr/local/bin/python {{.Script}}"
  ]
}

```

</Tab>
<Tab heading="JSON">

```json
{
  "type": "shell-local",
  "script": "hello.py",
  "environment_vars": ["HELLO_USER=packeruser"],
  "execute_command": [
    "/bin/sh",
    "-c",
    "{{.Vars}} /usr/local/bin/python {{.Script}}"
  ]
}
```

</Tab>
</Tabs>

```text
Where "hello.py" contains:

    import os

    print('Hello, %s!' % os.getenv("HELLO_USER"))
```
