terraform_docs failing on complex types which contains "description"

[MaxymVlasov]

How reproduce

Working code:

staged README.md

<!-- BEGINNING OF PRE-COMMIT-TERRAFORM DOCS HOOK -->

<!-- END OF PRE-COMMIT-TERRAFORM DOCS HOOK -->

staged vars.tf

variable "ingress_cidr_blocks" {
  description = "Bzzzzz"
  type = list(
    object({
      # description = string
      cidr_blocks = string
      from_port   = number
      to_port     = number
      protocol    = string
    })
  )

  default = [
    {
      description = "SG"
      cidr_blocks = "10.0.0.0/32"
      from_port   = 22
      to_port     = 22
      protocol    = "tcp"
    },
  ]
}

provider "aws" {
  region = "eu-west-1"
}

If uncomment # description = string - terraform_docs failed:

Terraform docs...........................................................Failed
hookid: terraform_docs

2019/09/09 18:19:45 At 4:21: Unknown token: 4:21 IDENT string

Root case

Error happens because awk rewrite this type to next construction:

variable "ingress_cidr_blocks" {
  description = "Bzzzzz"
  type = "list("
      description = string
  default = [
    {
      description = "SG"
      cidr_blocks = "10.0.0.0/32"
      from_port   = 22
      to_port     = 22
      protocol    = "tcp"
    },
  ]
}

Suggestion

"type" need be rewrite to "multiline", but I spend about 2 hours on it and not get excepted result.
I made crutch that fix error, but it will be good have full value, as in "default" block.

Workaround

Just not specify description field in complex types.

[MaxymVlasov]

Hello @cytopia,
Here is another bug-feature request for terraform_docs_awk.
Bug I propose fixing via patch, but it's temporaty solution and not add to README full variable type.

Feature request (and awk script) may be dissmised after implemented terraform-docs/terraform-docs#62 (comment). But when it will be...

[cytopia]

@MaxymVlasov I was already playing around with this one, but it is kind of tough.

It could probably be much easier solved If I can assume that terraform fmt has always been applied beforehand, but not sure If that would be good.

[antonbabenko]

Well, if terraform fmt will make code in a way that terraform_docs always understand we can make it as a hard requirement and ask everyone to have something like this:

repos:
  - repo: git://github.com/antonbabenko/pre-commit-terraform
    rev: v1.19.0
    hooks:
      - id: terraform_fmt
      - id: terraform_docs

[cytopia]

What should this type evaluate to?

  type = list(
    object({
      # description = string
      cidr_blocks = string
      from_port   = number
      to_port     = number
      protocol    = string
    })
  )

Should it be just list or list(object) or list(map(object)) or something else in TF 0.11.x?

[antonbabenko]

This is not valid for 0.11, so it has to be treated as type = list which is valid in both 0.11 and 0.12.

[cytopia]

The valid types I found for 0.11 are:

• list
• list(map(string))
• list(string)

So the above case should eval to list then?

[cytopia]

@MaxymVlasov @antonbabenko I managed to create a fix without the requirement for terraform fmt beforehand. Can you guys give it a try:

docker run --rm \
  -v $(pwd):/data \
  cytopia/terraform-docs:0.6.0-release-0.11 \
  terraform-docs-replace-012 \
    --sort-inputs-by-required \
    --with-aggregate-type-defaults md README.md

If this works, I'll create a PR

[MaxymVlasov]

It works much better then my crutch. Thank you a lot @cytopia @antonbabenko