---
description: |
    The windows-shell Packer provisioner runs commands on Windows using the cmd
    shell.
layout: docs
page_title: 'Windows Shell - Provisioners'
sidebar_current: 'docs-provisioners-windows-shell'
---

# Windows Shell Provisioner

Type: `windows-shell`

The windows-shell Packer provisioner runs commands on a Windows machine using
`cmd`. It assumes it is running over WinRM.

## Basic Example

The example below is fully functional.

``` json
{
  "type": "windows-shell",
  "inline": ["dir c:\\"]
}
```

## Configuration Reference

<%= partial "partials/provisioners/shell-config" %>

-   `environment_vars` (array of strings) - An array of key/value pairs to
    inject prior to the execute\_command. The format should be `key=value`.
    Packer injects some environmental variables by default into the
    environment, as well, which are covered in the section below.

-   `execute_command` (string) - The command to use to execute the script. By
    default this is `{{ .Vars }}"{{ .Path }}"`. The value of this is treated as
    [template engine](/docs/templates/engine.html). There are two available
    variables: `Path`, which is the path to the script to run, and `Vars`,
    which is the list of `environment_vars`, if configured.

-   `remote_path` (string) - The path where the script will be uploaded to in
    the machine. This defaults to "c:/Windows/Temp/script.bat". This value must
    be a writable location and any parent directories must already exist.

-   `start_retry_timeout` (string) - The amount of time to attempt to *start*
    the remote process. By default this is "5m" or 5 minutes. This setting
    exists in order to deal with times when SSH may restart, such as a system
    reboot. Set this to a higher value if reboots take a longer amount of time.

<%= partial "partials/provisioners/common-config" %>

## Default Environmental Variables

In addition to being able to specify custom environmental variables using the
`environment_vars` configuration, the provisioner automatically defines certain
commonly useful environmental variables:

-   `PACKER_BUILD_NAME` is set to the [name of the
    build](/docs/templates/builders.html#named-builds) that Packer is running.
    This is most useful when Packer is making multiple builds and you want to
    distinguish them slightly from a common provisioning script.

-   `PACKER_BUILDER_TYPE` is the type of the builder that was used to create
    the machine that the script is running on. This is useful if you want to
    run only certain parts of the script on systems built with certain
    builders.

-   `PACKER_HTTP_ADDR` If using a builder that provides an http server for file
    transfer (such as hyperv, parallels, qemu, virtualbox, and vmware), this
    will be set to the address. You can use this address in your provisioner to
    download large files over http. This may be useful if you're experiencing
    slower speeds using the default file provisioner. A file provisioner using
    the `winrm` communicator may experience these types of difficulties.
