Plugins will usually be located in the
[PACKER_HOME_DIR](/docs/configure#packer-s-home-directory).

* [`packer init`](/docs/commands/init) will install plugins in the **last** directory
in the following numbered list.

* During the initialization of Packer, any plugin required in the
**`required_plugins`** section will be looked up in all entries of the following
list. **First** plugin found takes precedence. Two binaries of the same plugin
with two different version will be considered as two different plugins. Highest
found version matching `required_plugins` will be taken into consideration.

1. The directory where `packer` is, or the executable directory.
1. The current working directory. (`"."`)
1. The `PACKER_HOME_DIR/plugins` directory. PACKER_HOME_DIR refers to *[Packer's home
directory](/docs/configure#packer-s-home-directory)*, if it could be found.
1. The director(y/ies) under the `PACKER_PLUGIN_PATH` env var, if `PACKER_PLUGIN_PATH`
is set.

~> **Note**: There can be more than one directory in the `PACKER_PLUGIN_PATH`
env var, it will be seperated by a semicolon (`;`) on Windows systems and a
colon (`:`) on other systems. The order priority will be kept.

Using the following example :
```hcl
    required_plugins {
      happycloud = {
        version = ">= 2.7.0"
        source = "github.com/azr/happycloud"
      }
    }
```

The plugin getter will then install the binaries in the following location for a
system with no `PACKER_PLUGIN_PATH` env var set.

* `PACKER_HOME_DIR/plugins/github.com/hashicorp/happycloud/`

During initialization, on a `darwin_amd64` system, Packer will look-up for the
following files:

* `PACKER_EXEC_DIR/github.com/azr/happycloud/packer-plugin-happycloud_*_x5.0_darwin_amd64`
* `./github.com/azr/happycloud/packer-plugin-happycloud_*_x5.0_darwin_amd64`
* `PACKER_HOME_DIR/plugins/github.com/azr/happycloud/packer-plugin-happycloud_*_x5.0_darwin_amd64`
* `PACKER_PLUGIN_PATH/github.com/azr/happycloud/packer-plugin-happycloud_*_x5.0_darwin_amd64`
* `./packer-plugin-happycloud`

The first plugin-name/version files found will take precedence.

For plugins located under the `github.com/azr/happycloud/` directory structure an accompanying SHA256SUM file
will be required in order for `packer init` to ensure the plugin being loaded has not been tampered with.
The SHA256SUM file will be automatically generated when a plugin is installed via `packer init` if the plugin
was installed manually into `PACKER_HOME_DIR/plugins/github.com/azr/happycloud/` then the file
`PACKER_HOME_DIR/plugins/github.com/azr/happycloud/packer-plugin-happycloud_*_x5.0_darwin_amd64_SHA256SUM` must be generated manually as well.

-> Note: `PACKER_HOME_DIR` is not an actual env var and refers to [Packer's home
directory](#packer-s-home-directory). `PACKER_EXEC_DIR` is not an actual env var
and refers to the directory where `packer` is, or the executable directory.