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---
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description: |
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The `packer init` Packer command is used to download Packer plugin binaries.
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page_title: packer init - Commands
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sidebar_title: <tt>init</tt>
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---
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# `init` Command
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-> **Note:** Packer does not currently have the notion of a state like Terraform
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has. In other words, currently `packer init` is only in charge of installing
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packer plugins.
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-> **Note:** Currently, `packer init` can only fetch binaries from public
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projects on *Github*.
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-> **Note:** Currently, `packer init` only fetches binaries using Github's
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public API, which [limits the number of unauthenticated requests per hour one IP
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can
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do](https://docs.github.com/en/developers/apps/rate-limits-for-github-apps#normal-user-to-server-rate-limits).
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Packer will do its best to avoid hitting those limits and in an average local
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usage this should not be an issue. Otherwise you can set the
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`PKR_GITHUB_API_TOKEN` env var in order to get more requests per hour. Go to
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your personal [access token page](https://github.com/settings/tokens) to
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generate a new token.
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-> **Note:** Packer init does not work with legacy JSON templates. You can
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upgrade your JSON config files to HCL using the hcl2ugprade command.
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-> **Note:** Packer init will only work with multiplugins -- that is plugins
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that are named `packer-plugin-*` -- to install a single plugin binary -- that is
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`packer-provisioner-*`, `packer-builder-*`, etc. -- nothing changes, you will
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have to [install the plugin manually](/docs/plugins#installing-plugins).
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The `packer init` command is used to download Packer plugin binaries.
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This is the first command that should be executed when working with a new or
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existing template. This command is always safe to run multiple times. Though
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subsequent runs may give errors, this command will never delete anything.
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`packer init` will list all installed plugins then download the latest versions
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for the ones that are missing.
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`packer init -upgrade` will try to get the latest versions for all plugins.
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Import a plugin using the [`required_plugin`](/docs/templates/hcl_templates/blocks/packer#specifying-plugin-requirements)
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block :
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```hcl
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packer {
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required_plugins {
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myawesomecloud = {
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version = ">= 2.7.0"
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source = "azr/myawesomecloud"
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}
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happycloud = ">= 2.7.0"
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}
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}
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```
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Packer init will install the latest found version matching the version selection
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in the `required_plugins` section. Make sure to set a correct [version
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constraint
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string](/docs/templates/hcl_templates/blocks/packer#version-constraints). The
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plugins will be installed in the [Plugin
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Directory](/docs/configure#packer-s-plugin-directory).
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## Options
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- `-upgrade` - On top of installing missing plugins, update installed plugins to
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the latest available version, if there is a new higher one. Note that this
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still takes into consideration the version constraint of the config.
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