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Upgrade to v1.13

The topic describes upgrade considerations for Packer v1.13. Refer to the v1.13 release notes for details about changes in v1.13.

Overview

You can use the upgrade command for the package manager you installed Packer with or download and replace the existing binary to upgrade Packer. Refer to Install Packer for instructions.

Upgrade from 1.12

Packer 1.13's notable changes can be summarised by the following points:

1. Provisioner Enhancement
2. New functions Support
3. Packer fmt command to format multiple HCL files
4. Top-Level hcp_packer_registry Block Support

Note: The Powershell provisioner changes are breaking changes.

Provisioner Enhancement

The shell provisioner’s inline field now supports executing scripts directly, including those with their own shebang (#!) lines. This enhancement allows you to provide a full script as an inline command, enabling dynamic scripts via tools like templatefile.

Added a wrapper around inline PowerShell commands executed by the provisioner to catch errors and ensure the Packer build fails if any command results in an error.

New functions Support

As part of Packer 1.13, we have introduced more functions.

• sum: takes a list or set of numbers and returns the sum of those numbers..
• startswith: takes two values: a string to check and a prefix string. The function returns true if the string begins with that exact prefix.
• endswith: takes two values: a string to check and a suffix string. The function returns true if the first string ends with that exact suffix.

Packer fmt command to format multiple HCL files

Added the ability for the packer fmt command to format multiple HCL files at once.

Top-Level hcp_packer_registry Block Support

Added support for defining the hcp_packer_registry block at the top level of the Packer configuration. Enables improved management and referencing of HCP Packer registries directly in the root schema.