first pass at docs update

common/shell-local/communicator.go

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package shell_local
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
+	"log"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
 	"syscall"
@@ -20,6 +21,7 @@ func (c *Communicator) Start(cmd *packer.RemoteCmd) error {
 	}
 
 	// Build the local command to execute
+	log.Printf("Executing local shell command %s", c.ExecuteCommand)
 	localCmd := exec.Command(c.ExecuteCommand[0], c.ExecuteCommand[1:]...)
 	localCmd.Stdin = cmd.Stdin
 	localCmd.Stdout = cmd.Stdout

post-processor/shell-local/post-processor.go

@@ -30,7 +30,11 @@ func (p *PostProcessor) Configure(raws ...interface{}) error {
 	} else if len(p.config.ExecuteCommand) == 1 {
 		// Backwards compatibility -- before merge, post-processor didn't have
 		// configurable call to shell program, meaning users may not have
-		// defined this in their call
+		// defined this in their call. If users are still using the old way of
+		// defining ExecuteCommand (e.g. just supplying a single string that is
+		// now being interpolated as a slice with one item), then assume we need
+		// to prepend this call still, and use the one that the post-processor
+		// defaulted to before.
 		p.config.ExecuteCommand = append([]string{"sh", "-c"}, p.config.ExecuteCommand...)
 	}
 

website/source/docs/post-processors/shell-local.html.md

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Type: `shell-local`
 
 The local shell post processor executes scripts locally during the post
 processing stage. Shell local provides a convenient way to automate executing
-some task with the packer outputs.
+some task with packer outputs and variables.
 
 ## Basic example
 
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ required element is either "inline" or "script". Every other option is optional.
 
 Exactly *one* of the following is required:
 
+-   `command` (string) - This is a single command to execute. It will be written
+    to a temporary file and run using the `execute_command` call below.
+
 -   `inline` (array of strings) - This is an array of commands to execute. The
     commands are concatenated by newlines and turned into a single file, so they
     are all executed within the same context. This allows you to change
@@ -52,15 +55,32 @@ Exactly *one* of the following is required:
 Optional parameters:
 
 -   `environment_vars` (array of strings) - An array of key/value pairs to
-    inject prior to the execute\_command. The format should be `key=value`.
+    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 `chmod +x "{{.Script}}"; {{.Vars}} "{{.Script}}"`.
-    The value of this is treated as [template engine](/docs/templates/engine.html).
+-   `execute_command` (array of strings) - The command used to execute the script. By
+    default this is `["sh", "-c", "chmod +x \"{{.Script}}\"; {{.Vars}} \"{{.Script}}\""]`
+    on unix and `["cmd", "/c", "{{.Vars}}", "{{.Script}}"]` on windows.
+    This is treated as a [template engine](/docs/templates/engine.html).
     There are two available variables: `Script`, which is the path to the script
-    to run, `Vars`, which is the list of `environment_vars`, if configured.
+    to run, and `Vars`, which is the list of `environment_vars`, if configured.
+    If you choose to set this option, make sure that the first element in the
+    array is the shell program you want to use (for example, "sh" or
+    "/usr/local/bin/zsh" or even "powershell.exe" although anything other than
+    a flavor of the shell command language is not explicitly supported and may
+    be broken by assumptions made within Packer).
+
+    For backwards compatibility, `execute_command` will accept a string insetad
+    of an array of strings. If a single string or an array of strings with only
+    one element is provided, Packer will replicate past behavior by appending
+    your `execute_command` to the array of strings `["sh", "-c"]`. For example,
+    if you set `"execute_command": "foo bar"`, the final `execute_command` that
+    Packer runs will be ["sh", "-c", "foo bar"]. If you set `"execute_command": ["foo", "bar"]`,
+    the final execute_command will remain `["foo", "bar"]`.
+
+    Again, the above is only provided as a backwards compatibility fix; we
+    strongly recommend that you set execute_command as an array of strings.
 
 -   `inline_shebang` (string) - The
     [shebang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebang_%28Unix%29) value to use when

website/source/docs/provisioners/shell-local.html.md

@@ -37,10 +37,26 @@ The example below is fully functional.
 The reference of available configuration options is listed below. The only
 required element is "command".
 
-Required:
+Exactly *one* of the following is required:
 
--   `command` (string) - The command to execute. This will be executed within
-    the context of a shell as specified by `execute_command`.
+-   `command` (string) - This is a single command to execute. It will be written
+    to a temporary file and run using the `execute_command` call below.
+
+-   `inline` (array of strings) - This is an array of commands to execute. The
+    commands are concatenated by newlines and turned into a single file, so they
+    are all executed within the same context. This allows you to change
+    directories in one command and use something in the directory in the next
+    and so on. Inline scripts are the easiest way to pull off simple tasks
+    within the machine.
+
+-   `script` (string) - The path to a script to execute. This path can be
+    absolute or relative. If it is relative, it is relative to the working
+    directory when Packer is executed.
+
+-   `scripts` (array of strings) - An array of scripts to execute. The scripts
+    will be executed in the order specified. Each script is executed in
+    isolation, so state such as variables from one script won't carry on to the
+    next.
 
 Optional parameters:
 
@@ -50,3 +66,34 @@ Optional parameters:
     treated as [configuration
     template](/docs/templates/engine.html). The only available
     variable is `Command` which is the command to execute.
+
+-   `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` (array of strings) - The command used to execute the script.
+    By default this is `["/bin/sh", "-c", "{{.Vars}}, "{{.Script}}"]`
+    on unix and `["cmd", "/c", "{{.Vars}}", "{{.Script}}"]` on windows.
+    This is treated as a [template engine](/docs/templates/engine.html).
+    There are two available variables: `Script`, which is the path to the script
+    to run, and `Vars`, which is the list of `environment_vars`, if configured
+    If you choose to set this option, make sure that the first element in the
+    array is the shell program you want to use (for example, "sh" or
+    "/usr/local/bin/zsh" or even "powershell.exe" although anything other than
+    a flavor of the shell command language is not explicitly supported and may
+    be broken by assumptions made within Packer), and a later element in the
+    array must be `{{.Script}}`.
+
+    For backwards compatability, {{.Command}} is also available to use in
+    `execute_command` but it is decoded the same way as {{.Script}}. We
+    recommend using {{.Script}} for the sake of clarity, as even when you set
+    only a single `command` to run, Packer writes it to a temporary file and
+    then runs it as a script.
+
+-   `inline_shebang` (string) - The
+    [shebang](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shebang_%28Unix%29) value to use when
+    running commands specified by `inline`. By default, this is `/bin/sh -e`. If
+    you're not using `inline`, then this configuration has no effect.
+    **Important:** If you customize this, be sure to include something like the
+    `-e` flag, otherwise individual steps failing won't fail the provisioner.