misleading tfvars error message: "Variables not allowed"

[steinybot]

Terraform Version

❯ terraform -v
Terraform v0.12.23

Terraform Configuration Files

variables.tf:

variable "foo" {
  type = string
}

terraform.tfvars:

foo = bar

Debug Output

https://gist.github.com/steinybot/6d6fed5c27d7eb919a1c939521d57c20

Crash Output

Expected Behavior

Running terraform plan should have read the variables from terraform.tfvars.

Actual Behavior

❯ terraform plan

Error: Variables not allowed

  on terraform.tfvars line 1:
   1: foo = bar

Variables may not be used here.


Error: No value for required variable

  on variables.tf line 1:
   1: variable "foo" {

The root module input variable "foo" is not set, and has no default value. Use
a -var or -var-file command line argument to provide a value for this
variable.

Steps to Reproduce

1. terraform plan

Additional Context

References

[steinybot]

So the underlying issue is that I forgot to quote the value.

It should be:

foo = "bar"

not:

foo = bar

But this is a really terrible error message to get for this type of mistake.

[calebtote]

Same issue experienced here as well, posting my specific error to help future googlers (my output is slightly different due to me wrapping my config with Terragrunt):

Error: Variables not allowed

  on <value for var.ids> line 1:
  (source code not available)

Variables may not be used here.

Below is the variable definition:

variable "ids" {
  type = list(string)
}

The following produced the similar error as @steinybot

ids = "foo"

Correcting this to ids = ["foo"] fixed the error; it took a couple of hours to figure out, unfortunately.

[triwats]

Experiencing this too when I try to pass input a file to plan. I'd expect this to be a bit more verbose. It was failing as I had not encapsulated a variable with quotes when passing a secret variable from CI/CD.

[marc-gmail-towersap]

I'm getting a similar error. I have provider "azurerm" { features {} } variable "aad_allowed_tenants" { type = list default = ["blah"] } output "tenantid" { value = var.aad_allowed_tenants[0] } If I run terraform plan on this, I get the expected output (blah).

but from commandline, I try to overwrite it using terraform plan -var='aad_allowed_tenants=["aasdfad"]' ╷ │ Error: Variables not allowed │ │ on line 1: │ (source code not available) │ │ Variables may not be used here. ╵

Just installed the latest version (1.0.0). same error.

[marc-gmail-towersap]

hah, this is a powershell problem. If I flip to bash, using the exact same terraform.exe, it works.

[tibbon]

I'm having problems with this using terratest. Bits of relevant code:

func TestTerraformHelloWorldExample(t *testing.T) {
	terraformOptions := terraform.WithDefaultRetryableErrors(t, &terraform.Options{
		TerraformDir: "../examples",
		Upgrade:      true,
		VarFiles: []string{"test.tfvars"},
	})
}

variable "key1" {
  type = string
}

variable "key2" {
  type = string
}

key1=foo
key2=bar

[pintoflager]

Truly confusing error message. Thanks for posting this issue, without it, it would of taken me a long time to figure out whats going on.

I got it by providing a list variable with following input: [name1,name2,name3] ...when its expecting: ["name1","name2","name3"]

[erpel]

The same also happens when you forget to put quotes around a string default value like this:

variable "foo" {
    type = string
    default = bar
}

[micmania1]

I just hit this on Windows Terminal using a list variable as part of the command. Escaping the double quotes seemed to work:

terraform plan -var 'some_list=[\"blah1\", \"blah2\"\]'

[linak-lukasmendez]

I have the same problem for objects:

This is my variables.tf:

variable "smtp" {
  type = object({
    username = string
    port = string
    sender_address = string
    server_name = string
  })
  default = {
    username = ""
    port = ""
    sender_address = ""    
    server_name = ""
  }
}

And then when running:

terraform plan -var-file=environments/weu-dev.tfvars "-var=smtp={"username":"hej", "port":"1234", "sender_address":"prutprut.dk", "server_name":"facebookcom"}"

I just get this:

Funny thing is when I do it with another variable, that has the same structure, I don't get this error.

variable "sql_database" {
  type = object({
    create_environmental = bool
    optional_token = string
  })
  default = {
    create_environmental = false
    optional_token = ""
  }
}

Here I just use:

terraform plan -var-file=environments/weu-dev.tfvars "-var=sql_database={"create_environmental": true, "optional_token": "1123444"}"

And it works perfectly.

I can't see what the difference is, other than the names and the fact that one of the attributes are a boolean. But otherwise they are very alike, but the first one fails, while the last one doesn't.

What am I not seeing??

[rahulguptaft9]

I just hit this on Windows Terminal using a list variable as part of the command. Escaping the double quotes seemed to work:

terraform plan -var 'some_list=[\"blah1\", \"blah2\"\]'

this worked for me

[drleowang]

I got the same issue by using Terraform Cloud, I have to mention that you must add "" when you add variables in Workspace variables, or it will report "Variables not allowed"! Must be very careful about adding Workspace variables.

[simoncpu]

I came across this issue in Terraform Cloud too. Turns out I needed to enclose the string in quotes. The error message is misleading!

[nick-holmquist]

Another +1 for issues with not putting quotes around the value in Terraform Cloud variable definition.

[petersandersen]

Just hit this when setting variables via the cloud API. Without adding the double quotes to the values I kept getting this cryptic error message. Python snippet below:

 "variables": [
    {"key": "VULTR_PLAN", "value": f'"{VULTR_PLAN}"'},
    {"key": "VULTR_REGION", "value": f'"{VULTR_REGION}"'},
],

[Tiana125]

Just hit this as well, turns out my variable type was wrong, a simple edit of "variable type is incorrect/cannot be accepted" will be much clearer!

[aniketpant1]

I am also getting the same error.

I have two terraform files

I have two terraform files

list.tf

variable "users" {
  type = list
}

get_user_list.tf

output "get_user_list" {
  value = var.users
}

When i am running
terraform plan -var 'users=["ankit","gaurav","kapil"]'

It throwing below error

╷
│ Error: Variables not allowed
│
│   on <value for var.users> line 1:
│   (source code not available)
│
│ Variables may not be used here.
╵
╷
│ Error: Variables not allowed
│
│   on <value for var.users> line 1:
│   (source code not available)
│
│ Variables may not be used here.
╵
╷
│ Error: Variables not allowed
│
│   on <value for var.users> line 1:
│   (source code not available)
│
│ Variables may not be used here.
╵
╷
│ Error: No value for required variable
│
│   on list.tf line 1:
│    1: variable "users" {
│
│ The root module input variable "users" is not set, and has no default value. Use a -var or -var-file command line
│ argument to provide a value for this variable.

[stuffaboutpete]

Same problem occurs when not putting spaces around the equals sign in tfvars file.

Fails:

name="Production"

Works:

name = "Production"