For a long time now, the diff logic has relied on the behavior of
`mapstructure.WeakDecode` to determine how various primitives are
converted into strings. The `schema.DiffString` function is used for
all primitive field types: TypeBool, TypeInt, TypeFloat, and TypeString.
The `mapstructure` library's string representation of booleans is "0"
and "1", which differs from `strconv.FormatBool`'s "false" and "true"
(which is used in writing out boolean fields to the state).
Because of this difference, diffs have long had the potential for
cosmetically odd but semantically neutral output like:
"true" => "1"
"false" => "0"
So long as `mapstructure.Decode` or `strconv.ParseBool` are used to
interpret these strings, there's no functional problem.
We had our first clear functional problem with #6005 and friends, where
users noticed diffs like the above showing up unexpectedly and causing
troubles when `ignore_changes` was in play.
This particular bug occurs down in Terraform core's EvalIgnoreChanges.
There, the diff is modified to account for ignored attributes, and
special logic attempts to handle properly the situation where the
ignored attribute was going to trigger a resource replacement. That
logic relies on the string representations of the Old and New fields in
the diff to be the same so that it filters properly.
So therefore, we now get a bug when a diff includes `Old: "0", New:
"false"` since the strings do not match, and `ignore_changes` is not
properly handled.
Here, we introduce `TypeBool`-specific normalizing into `finalizeDiff`.
I spiked out a full `diffBool` function, but figuring out which pieces
of `diffString` to duplicate there got hairy. This seemed like a simpler
and more direct solution.
Fixes#6005 (and potentially others!)
The ignore_changes diff filter was stripping out attributes on Create
but the diff was still making it down to the provider, so Create would
end up missing attributes, causing a full failure if any required
attributes were being ignored.
In addition, any changes that required a replacement of the resource
were causing problems with `ignore_chages`, which didn't properly filter
out the replacement when the triggering attributes were filtered out.
Refs #5627
Here we also introduce a `test` provider meant as an aid to exposing
via automated tests issues involving interactions between
`helper/schema` and Terraform core.
This has been helpful so far in diagnosing `ignore_changes` problems,
and I imagine it will be helpful in other contexts as well.
We'll have to be careful to prevent the `test` provider from becoming a
dumping ground for poorly specified tests that have a clear home
elsewhere. But for bug exposure I think it's useful to have.
Paul Hinze