Whether you use the `inline` option, or pass it a direct `script` or `scripts`, it is important to understand a few things about how the shell-local post-processor works to run it safely and easily. This understanding will save you much time in the process.
### Once Per Artifact
The `shell-local` script(s) you pass are run once per artifact output file. That means that if your builder results in 1 output file, your script will be run once. If it results in 3 output files, it will run 3 times, once for each file.
For example, the virtualbox builders, when configured to provide an `ovf` output format (the default), will provide **two** output files:
* The actual disk itself, in `.vmdk` format
* The appliance description file, in `.ovf` format
Each time each shell-local script is run, it is passed the path to the artifact file, relative to the directory in which packer is run, as the first argument to the script.
Let's take a simple example. You want to run a post-processor that records the name of every artifact created to `/tmp/artifacts`. (Why? I don't know. For fun.)
Your post-processor should look like this:
``` {.javascript}
{
"type": "shell-local",
"inline": [
"echo \$1 >> /tmp/artifacts"
]
}
```
The result of the above will be an output line for each artifact.
The net effect of this is that if you want to post-process only some files, **you must test**`$1` to see if it is the file you want.
Here is an example script that converts the `.vmdk` artifact of a virtualbox build to a raw img, suitable for converting to a USB.
``` {.bash}
#!/bin/bash -e
[[ "$1" == *.vmdk ]] && vboxmanage clonemedium disk $1 --format raw output_file.img
```
### Always Exit Intentionally
If any post-processor fails, the `packer build` stops and all interim artifacts are cleaned up.
For a shell script, that means the script **must** exit with a zero code. You *must* be extra careful to `exit 0` when necessary. Using our above conversion script example, if the current artifact is *not* a `.vmdk` file, the test `[[ "$1" == *.vmdk ]]` will fail. Since that is the last command in the script, the script will exit with a non-zero code, the post-processor will fail, the build will fail, and you will have to start over.
Of course, we didn't mean that! We just meant:
* If a `.vmdk` file, convert, and that is OK
* If not a `.vmdk` file, ignore, and that is OK
To make it work correctly, use the following instead:
``` {.bash}
#!/bin/bash -e
[[ "$1" == *.vmdk ]] && vboxmanage clonemedium disk $1 --format raw output_file.img
