Error Archiving Directory with Symlinks When Using the Terraform Archive Provider

Problem

When using the archive_file data source in a Terraform configuration, you may encounter the following error if the target directory contains symbolic links.

error archiving directory: error reading file for archival: read dir_with_symlink/symlinked: is a directory

Cause

This error occurs when the value provided for the source_file attribute points to a directory that contains symbolic links, and you are using a version of the archive provider older than 2.4.0.

Solution

To resolve this issue, update your configuration to use version 2.4.0 or newer of the archive provider. This version includes a fix that correctly handles symbolic links during the archiving process.

Example configuration block specifying the required provider version:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    archive = {
      source  = "hashicorp/archive"
      version = ">= 2.4.0"
    }
  }
}

After updating your configuration, run terraform init -upgrade to download the new provider version.

Additional Information

• For more details on the fix, refer to the release notes for version 2.4.0 of the archive provider.
• For more information on using this data source, please see the official documentation for the archive_file data source.