It is simply the best/simplest solution and trying to prevent users from passing and integer here would be like opening a can of worms. Because:
* we cannot make mapstructure validate our duration string ( with an UnmarshalJSON func etc.)
* we cannot make mapstructure spit a string instead of a duration and packer will decode-encode-decode config.
* the hcl2 generated code asks for a string, so this will be enforced by default.
Before this commit it was possible to set a duration using an integer or a float. Go's time.Duration is an int64 internally an mapstructure will take advantage of this and load the number as a int64 but `1` means one ns which is unexpected/confusing. To avoid confusion and enforce readability this forces users to pass a string with a unit for a duration; ex "56s".
* I had to contextualise Communicator.Start and RemoteCmd.StartWithUi
NOTE: Communicator.Start starts a RemoteCmd but RemoteCmd.StartWithUi will run the cmd and wait for a return, so I renamed StartWithUi to RunWithUi so that the intent is clearer.
Ideally in the future RunWithUi will be named back to StartWithUi and the exit status or wait funcs of the command will allow to wait for a return. If you do so please read carrefully https://golang.org/pkg/os/exec/#Cmd.Stdout to avoid a deadlock
* cmd.ExitStatus to cmd.ExitStatus() is now blocking to avoid race conditions
* also had to simplify StartWithUi
* removed packer.Cache and references since packer.Cache is never used except in the download step. The download step now uses the new func packer.CachePath(targetPath) for this, the behavior is the same.
* removed download code from packer that was reimplemented into the go-getter library: progress bar, http download restart, checksuming from file, skip already downloaded files, symlinking, make a download cancellable by context.
* on windows if packer is running without symlinking rights and we are getting a local file, the file will be copied instead to avoid errors.
* added unit tests for step_download that are now CI tested on windows, mac & linux.
* files are now downloaded under cache dir `sha1(filename + "?checksum=" + checksum) + file_extension`
* since the output dir is based on the source url and the checksum, when the checksum fails, the file is auto deleted.
* a download file is protected and locked by a file lock,
* updated docs
* updated go modules and vendors
Adrien Delorme
Megan Marsh
Davor Kapsa
allinwait
William L. Brooks
Dave Hirschfeld
Adrien Delorme
Yaakov
Ladar Levison