Make template variables SSHPublicKey and SSHPrivateKey as strings (#8829)

common/step_provision.go

@@ -61,8 +61,8 @@ func PopulateProvisionHookData(state multistep.StateBag) map[string]interface{}
 	hookData["User"] = commConf.User()
 	hookData["Password"] = commConf.Password()
 	hookData["ConnType"] = commConf.Type
-	hookData["SSHPublicKey"] = commConf.SSHPublicKey
+	hookData["SSHPublicKey"] = string(commConf.SSHPublicKey)
-	hookData["SSHPrivateKey"] = commConf.SSHPrivateKey
+	hookData["SSHPrivateKey"] = string(commConf.SSHPrivateKey)
 
 	// Backwards compatibility; in practice, WinRMPassword is fulfilled by
 	// Password.

common/step_provision_test.go

@@ -83,13 +83,11 @@ func TestPopulateProvisionHookData(t *testing.T) {
 	if hookData["ConnType"] != commConfig.Type {
 		t.Fatalf("Bad: Expecting hookData[\"ConnType\"]  was %s but actual value was %s", commConfig.Type, hookData["ConnType"])
 	}
-	sshPublicKey := fmt.Sprintf("%v", hookData["SSHPublicKey"].(interface{}))
+	if hookData["SSHPublicKey"] != string(commConfig.SSHPublicKey) {
-	if sshPublicKey == string(commConfig.SSHPublicKey) {
+		t.Fatalf("Bad: Expecting hookData[\"SSHPublicKey\"]  was %s but actual value was %s", string(commConfig.SSHPublicKey), hookData["SSHPublicKey"])
-		t.Fatalf("Bad: Expecting hookData[\"SSHPublicKey\"]  was %s but actual value was %s", string(commConfig.SSHPublicKey), sshPublicKey)
 	}
-	sshPrivateKey := fmt.Sprintf("%v", hookData["SSHPrivateKey"].(interface{}))
+	if hookData["SSHPrivateKey"] != string(commConfig.SSHPrivateKey) {
-	if sshPrivateKey == string(commConfig.SSHPrivateKey) {
+		t.Fatalf("Bad: Expecting hookData[\"SSHPrivateKey\"]  was %s but actual value was %s", string(commConfig.SSHPrivateKey), hookData["SSHPrivateKey"])
-		t.Fatalf("Bad: Expecting hookData[\"SSHPrivateKey\"]  was %s but actual value was %s", string(commConfig.SSHPrivateKey), sshPrivateKey)
 	}
 	if hookData["WinRMPassword"] != commConfig.WinRMPassword {
 		t.Fatalf("Bad: Expecting hookData[\"WinRMPassword\"]  was %s but actual value was %s", commConfig.WinRMPassword, hookData["WinRMPassword"])

helper/communicator/config.go

@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@ func (c *Config) Port() int {
 	}
 }
 
-// Host returns the port that will be used for access based on config.
+// Host returns the host that will be used for access based on config.
 func (c *Config) Host() string {
 	switch c.Type {
 	case "ssh":
@@ -338,7 +338,7 @@ func (c *Config) Host() string {
 	}
 }
 
-// User returns the port that will be used for access based on config.
+// User returns the user that will be used for access based on config.
 func (c *Config) User() string {
 	switch c.Type {
 	case "ssh":
@@ -350,7 +350,7 @@ func (c *Config) User() string {
 	}
 }
 
-// Password returns the port that will be used for access based on config.
+// Password returns the password that will be used for access based on config.
 func (c *Config) Password() string {
 	switch c.Type {
 	case "ssh":

website/source/docs/templates/engine.html.md

@@ -74,14 +74,36 @@ Here is a full list of the available functions for reference.
     }
     ```
 
-    Valid variables to request are: "ID", "Host",
+    Valid variables to request are: 
-    "Port", "User", "Password", "ConnType",
+    - __ID__: Represents the vm being provisioned. For example, in Amazon it is the instance id; in digitalocean, 
-    "PackerRunUUID", "PackerHTTPAddr", "SSHPublicKey", and "SSHPrivateKey".
+    it is the droplet id; in Vmware, it is the vm name.   
-    Depending on which communicator you are using, some of these values may be
+     
-    empty -- for example, the public and private keys are unique to the SSH
+    - __Host__, __Port__, __User__ and __Password__: The host, port, user, and password that Packer uses to access the machine. 
-    communicator. InstanceID represents the vm being provisioned. For example,
+    Useful for using the shell local provisioner to run Ansible or Inspec against the provisioned instance.
-    in Amazon it is the instance id; in digitalocean, it is the droplet id; in
+    
-    Vmware, it is the vm name.
+    - __ConnType__: Type of communicator being used. For example, for SSH communicator this will be "ssh".
+    
+    - __PackerRunUUID__: Current build's unique id. Can be used to specify build artifacts.
+    
+    - __PackerHTTPAddr__: HTTP address of the file server Packer creates to serve items in the "http" dir to the vm, displayed in the format `IP:PORT`.
+    
+    - __SSHPublicKey__ and __SSHPrivateKey__: The public and private key that Packer uses to connect to the instance. 
+    These are unique to the SSH communicator and are unset when using other communicators. 
+    __SSHPublicKey__ and __SSHPrivateKey__ can have escape sequences and special characters so their output should be single quoted to avoid surprises.  For example:
+       
+        ```
+        {
+          ...
+          "provisioners": [
+            {
+              "type": "shell",
+              "inline": [
+                "echo '{{ build `SSHPrivateKey`}}'  > /tmp/packer-session.pem"
+              ]
+             }
+          ]
+        }
+        ```
       
     For backwards compatability, `WinRMPassword` is also available through this
     engine, though it is no different than using the more general `Password`.