Launch configuration user_data can't handle binary

[FransUrbo]

I have a script, called from a aws_launch_configuration in a provisioner "local-exec" that creates a setup script with a embedded BZ2 tarball.

This resulting script is then used in a user_data:

  provisioner "local-exec" {
    command = "./bin/package_files_for_LC.sh [options]"
  }

  user_data = "${file("..../userdata-script.sh")}"

If I include the tarball in binary form

./bin/package_files_for_LC.sh:

#!/bin/sh
[misc other stuff]
cat <<EOF > "..../userdata-script.sh"
#!/bin/sh
[misc other stuff]
`cat "../file.tar.bz2"`

TF will refuse to create the launch configuration.

However, if i uuencode it, it will work:

./bin/package_files_for_LC.sh:

#!/bin/sh
[misc other stuff]
cat <<EOF > "..../userdata-script.sh"
#!/bin/sh
[misc other stuff]
`cat "../file.tar.bz2" | uuencode -`

However, the resulting file gets quite big. So far the tarball is quite small (just a bunch of other setup shell scripts that I'll need in the provisioning of the instance), so I don't know if there's a size limit on the user_data part.

[FransUrbo]

This might be a size issue, so possibly related to #5525.

[mitchellh]

If you use cloudinit user data parts, then you can upload binary data.

[ghost]

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