packer/website/source/docs/configuration/from-1.5/functions/file/file.html.md

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docs	file - Functions - Configuration Language	configuration-functions-file-file-x	The file function reads the contents of the file at the given path and returns them as a string.

file Function

file reads the contents of a file at the given path and returns them as a string.

file(path)

Strings in the Packer language are sequences of Unicode characters, so this function will interpret the file contents as UTF-8 encoded text and return the resulting Unicode characters. If the file contains invalid UTF-8 sequences then this function will produce an error.

This function can be used only with files that already exist on disk at the beginning of a Packer run. Functions do not participate in the dependency graph, so this function cannot be used with files that are generated dynamically during a Packer operation. We do not recommend using dynamic local files in Packer configurations, but in rare situations where this is necessary you can use the local_file data source to read files while respecting resource dependencies.

Examples

> file("${path.folder}/hello.txt")
Hello World

Related Functions

• fileexists determines whether a file exists at a given path.