Error message when Terraform CLI cannot be loaded from sources does not list sources

[gdavison]

terraform-plugin-testing version

v1.2.0

Expected Behavior

When the Terraform CLI cannot be found, an error message like

cannot run Terraform provider tests: failed to find or install Terraform CLI from [<description of source> <description of source>]: ...

should be returned.

Actual Behavior

The error message was

cannot run Terraform provider tests: failed to find or install Terraform CLI from [0xc0018cba40 0xc005f65180]: ...

Steps to Reproduce

Fail to locate the Terraform CLI when running tests, e.g. a network failure

[austinvalle]

Hey @gdavison 👋🏻 , thanks for submitting the issue.

We're considering whether we need to include the description of the source if the underlying error has sufficient info. (as the upstream hc-install does not implement a friendly Stringer method for describing each source)

From my testing, it seems some (haven't tested all) sources return enough information to describe the error without extra code, such as:

# Example w/ non-existent version
cannot run Terraform provider tests: error ensuring Terraform CLI binary: failed to obtain product version from "https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/1.5.2/index.json": 404 Not Found

# Example w/ network error
cannot run Terraform provider tests: error ensuring Terraform CLI binary: Get "https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/1.5.0/index.json": dial tcp: lookup releases.hashicorp.com: no such host

Did you happen to run into an error message that wasn't helpful? If so I can submit a change to the upstream hc-install. Otherwise we might just remove that code attempting to print the source detail as it'll just keep printing memory addresses 😆

[gdavison]

I don't remember specifically what I was trying at that point. IIRC, I think we had some intermittent CI failures because of momentary networking failures, even though the Terraform CLI should have already been on the machine, and I was trying to figure out what was happening.

I don't remember if the individual sources gave their own errors. Having the memory addresses instead of a useful description of the source was frustrating, more that anything. Maybe the proper place for the bug report is hc-install

[austinvalle]

Ah gotcha, that makes sense. I'll keep an eye on that issue you opened, thanks!