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Provisioners

Provisioners use built-in and third-party software to install and configure the machine image after booting. Provisioners prepare the system, so you may want to use them for the following use cases:

  • installing packages
  • patching the kernel
  • creating users
  • downloading application code

The following provisioners are included with Packer:

  • Breakpoint - pause until the user presses Enter to resume a build.
  • File - upload files to machines image during a build.
  • Shell - run shell scripts on the machines image during a build.
  • Local Shell - run shell scripts on the host running Packer during a build.
  • PowerShell - run PowerShell scripts on Windows machine images during a build.
  • Windows Shell - run commands using cmd on Windows machine images during a build.
  • Windows Restart - initiate a reboot on a Windows machine images during a build.
  • HCP Software Bill of Materials - Upload an SBOM and associate it with an artifact version in the HCP Packer registry.

Additional Community Supported provisioners are developed and maintained by various members of the community.

Refer to the provisioner block documentation to learn more about working with provisioners.

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