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Update CONTRIBUTING.md: Update 'docker run' example (#2005) 
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Contributing to OpenTofu

Welcome and thank you for wanting to contribute!

Get started

Tip

For more OpenTofu events, subscribe to the OpenTofu Events Calendar!

⚠️ Important: Please avoid working on features or refactor without an accepted issue. OpenTofu is a large and complex project and every change needs careful consideration. We cannot merge non-bug pull requests without first having a discussion about them, no matter how trivial the issue may seem.

We specifically do not merge PRs without prior issues that:

  • Reformat code
  • Rename things
  • Move code around
  • Fix linter warnings for tools not currently in the CI pipeline
  • Add new CI tooling

Writing code for OpenTofu

Eager to get started on coding? Here's the short version:

  1. Set up a Go development environment with Git.
  2. Pay attention to copyright: please read the DCO, write the code yourself, avoid copy/paste. Disable your AI coding assistant.
  3. Run the tests with go test in the package you are working on.
  4. Build OpenTofu by running go build ./cmd/tofu.
  5. Update the changelog.
  6. When you commit, use git commit -s to sign off your commits.
  7. Complete the checklist below before you submit your PR (or submit a draft PR).
  8. Your PR will be reviewed by the core team once it is marked as ready to review.

PR checklist

Please make sure you complete the following checklist before you mark your PR ready for review. If you cannot complete the checklist but want to submit a PR, please submit it as a draft PR. Please note, the core team will only review your PR if you have completed the checklist and marked your PR as ready to review.

  • I have read the contribution guidelines.
  • I have not used an AI coding assistant to create this PR.
  • I have written all code in this PR myself OR I have marked all code I have not written myself (including modified code, e.g. copied from other places and then modified) with a comment indicating where it came from.
  • I (and other contributors to this PR) have not looked at the Terraform source code while implementing this PR.

Go checklist

If your PR contains Go code, please make sure you check off all items on this list:

  • I have run golangci-lint on my change and receive no errors relevant to my code.
  • I have run existing tests to ensure my code doesn't break anything.
  • I have added tests for all relevant use cases of my code, and those tests are passing.
  • I have only exported functions, variables and structs that should be used from other packages.
  • I have added meaningful comments to all exported functions, variables, and structs.

Website/documentation checklist

If you have changed the website, please follow this checklist:

  • I have locally started the website as described here and checked my changes.

Setting up your development environment

You can develop OpenTofu on any platform you like. However, we recommend either a Linux (including WSL on Windows) or a macOS build environment. You will need Go and Git installed, and we recommend an IDE to help you with code completion and code quality warnings. (We recommend installing the Go version documented in the .go-version file.)

Alternatively, if you use Visual Studio Code or Goland/IntelliJ and have Docker or Podman installed, you can also use a devcontainer. In Visual Studio Code, you can install the Remote Containers extension, then reopen the project to get a prompt about activating the devcontainer. In Goland/Intellij, open the .devcontainers.json file and click the purple cube icon that appears next to the line numbers to activate the dev container. At this point you can proceed as if you were building natively on Linux.

Building OpenTofu

There are two ways to build OpenTofu: natively and in a container. Building natively means you are building directly where your code is located without dynamically creating a container. In contrast, building in a container means you are using a build container to run the build process only.

Building natively

To build OpenTofu natively, you will need to install Go in the environment you are running in. You can then run the go build command from your OpenTofu source directory as follows:

GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o tofu -v -buildvcs=false ./cmd/tofu

This command will produce a tofu binary in your current directory, which you can test by running ./tofu --version.

Tip

Replace the GOOS and GOARCH values with your target platform if you wish to cross-compile. You can find more information in the Go documentation.

Note

We build with the CGO_ENABLED=0 environment variable on almost all platforms. The only exception is macOS/Darwin to avoid DNS resolution issues.

Building in a container

If you have Docker or a compatible alternative installed, you can run the entire build process in a container too:

docker run \
  --rm \
  -v "$PWD":/usr/src/opentofu\
  -w /usr/src/opentofu\
  -e GOOS=linux\
  -e GOARCH=amd64\
  -e CGO_ENABLED=0\
  golang:1.21.3\
  go build -o tofu -v -buildvcs=false ./cmd/tofu

This will create the tofu binary in the current working directory, which you can test by running ./tofu --version.

Running tests

Similar to builds, you can use the go test command to run tests. To run the entire test suite, please run the following command in your OpenTofu source directory:

go test ./...

Alternatively, you can also run the go test command in the package you are currently working on:

go test ./internal/command/...
go test ./internal/addrs

Tip

You can find more information on testing in the Go documentation.

Debugging OpenTofu

We recommend using an interactive debugger for finding issues quickly. Most IDE's have a built-in option for this, but you can also set up dlv on a remote machine for debugging. You can use the debug-opentofu script to run OpenTofu in debug mode. You can then connect the remote machine on port 2345 for debugging.

For VSCode, add the following setting to .vscode/launch.json for easy debugging:

{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "tofu init",
            "type": "go",
            "request": "launch",
            "mode": "debug",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/cmd/tofu",
            // You can update the environment variables here
            // For more information, visit: https://opentofu.org/docs/cli/config/environment-variables/
            "env": {
                "TF_LOG": "trace"
            },
            // You can update your arguments for init command here
            // Comment out the following line and update your workdir to target
            // "args": ["-chdir=<WORKDIR>", "init"]
            "args": ["init"]
        },
        {
            "name": "tofu plan",
            "type": "go",
            "request": "launch",
            "mode": "debug",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/cmd/tofu",
            "env": {
                "TF_LOG": "trace"
            },
            // You can update your arguments for plan command here
            // Comment out the following line and update your workdir to target
            // "args": ["-chdir=<WORKDIR>", "plan"]
            "args": ["plan"]
        }
    ]
}

Similarly, you can add the following configurations to you .idea/runConfigurations folder if you use Goland/IntelliJ:

<!-- .idea/runConfigurations/tofu_init.xml -->
<component name="ProjectRunConfigurationManager">
  <configuration default="false" name="tofu init" type="GoApplicationRunConfiguration" factoryName="Go Application">
    <module name="opentofu" />
    <working_directory value="$PROJECT_DIR$" />
    <parameters value="init" />
    <kind value="DIRECTORY" />
    <package value="github.com/opentofu/opentofu/cmd/tofu" />
    <directory value="$PROJECT_DIR$/cmd/tofu" />
    <filePath value="$PROJECT_DIR$" />
    <method v="2" />
  </configuration>
</component>

<!-- .idea/runConfigurations/tofu_plan.xml -->
<component name="ProjectRunConfigurationManager">
  <configuration default="false" name="tofu plan" type="GoApplicationRunConfiguration" factoryName="Go Application">
    <module name="opentofu" />
    <working_directory value="$PROJECT_DIR$" />
    <parameters value="plan" />
    <kind value="DIRECTORY" />
    <package value="github.com/opentofu/opentofu/cmd/tofu" />
    <directory value="$PROJECT_DIR$/cmd/tofu" />
    <filePath value="$PROJECT_DIR$" />
    <method v="2" />
  </configuration>
</component>

In addition to interactive debugging, you can also use go-spew to print complex data structures while running the code.

Updating the changelog

We are keeping track of the changes to OpenTofu in the CHANGELOG.md file. Please update it when you add features or fix bugs in OpeTofu.

Signing off your commits

When you contribute code to OpenTofu, we require you to add a Developer Certificate of Origin sign-off. Please read the DCO carefully before you proceed and only contribute code you have written yourself. Please do not add code that you have not written from scratch yourself without discussing it in the related issue first.

The simplest way to add a sign-off is to use the -s command when you commit:

git commit -s -m "My commit message"

Important

Make sure your user.name and user.email setting in Git matches your GitHub settings. This will allow the automated DCO check to pass and avoid delays when merging your PR.

Tip

Have you forgotten your sign-off? Click the "details" button on the failing DCO check for a guide on how to fix it!

A note on copyright

We take copyright and intellectual property very seriously. A few quick rules should help you:

  1. When you submit a PR, you are responsible for the code in that pull request. You signal your acceptance of the DCO with your sign-off.
  2. If you include code in your PR that you didn't write yourself, make sure you have permission from the author. If you have permission, always add the Co-authored-by sign-off to your commits to indicate the author of the code you are adding.
  3. Be careful about AI coding assistants! Coding assistants based on large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot, are awesome tools to help. However, in the specific case of OpenTofu the training data may include the BSL-licensed Terraform. Since the OpenTofu/Terraform codebase is very specific and LLMs don't have any other training sources, they may emit copyrighted code. Please avoid using LLM-based coding assistants.
  4. When you copy/paste code from within the OpenTofu code, always make it explicit where you copied from. This helps us resolve issues later on.
  5. Before you copy code from external sources, make sure that the license allows this. Also make sure that any licensing requirements, such as attribution, are met. When in doubt, ask first!
  6. Specifically, do not copy from the Terraform repository, or any PRs others have filed against that repository. This code is licensed under the BSL, a license which is not compatible with OpenTofu. (You may submit the same PR to both Terraform and OpenTofu as long as you are the author of both.)

Warning

To protect the OpenTofu project from legal issues violating these rules will immediately disqualify your PR from being merged and you from working on that area of the OpenTofu code base in the future. Repeat violations may get you barred from contributing to OpenTofu.

Advanced topics

Acceptance Tests: Testing interactions with external services

The test command above only runs the self-contained tests that run without external services. There are, however, some optional tests in the OpenTofu CLI codebase that do interact with external services. We collectively refer to them as "acceptance tests".

You can enable these by setting the environment variable TF_ACC=1 when running the tests. We recommend focusing only on the specific package you are working on when enabling acceptance tests, both because it can help the test run to complete faster and because you are less likely to encounter failures due to drift in systems unrelated to your current goal:

TF_ACC=1 go test ./internal/initwd

Integration Tests: Testing interactions with external backends

OpenTofu supports various backends. We run integration test against them to ensure no side effects when using OpenTofu.

Execute to list all available commands to run tests:

make list-integration-tests

From the list of output commands, you can execute those which involve backends you intend to test against.

For example, execute the command to run integration tests with s3 backend:

make test-s3

Generated Code

Some files in the OpenTofu CLI codebase are generated. In most cases, we update these using go generate, which is the standard way to encapsulate code generation steps in a Go codebase.

go generate ./...

Use git diff afterward to inspect the changes and ensure that they are what you expected.

OpenTofu includes generated Go stub code for the OpenTofu provider plugin protocol, which is defined using Protocol Buffers. Because the Protocol Buffers tools are not written in Go and thus cannot be automatically installed using go get, we follow a different process for generating these, which requires that you've already installed a suitable version of protoc:

make protobuf

Adding or updating dependencies

If you need to add or update dependencies, you'll have to make sure they use only approved and compatible licenses. The list of these licenses is defined in .licensei.toml.

To help verifying this in local development environment and in continuous integration, we use the licensei open source tool.

After modifying go.mod or go.sum files, you can run it manually with:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=changeme
make license-check

Note: you need to define the GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable to a valid GitHub personal access token, or you will hit rate limiting from the GitHub API which licensei uses to discover the licenses of dependencies.

Backporting

All changes to OpenTofu should, by default, go into the main branch. When a fix is important enough, it will be backported to a version branch and release when the next minor release rolls around.

Start the backporting process by making sure both the main and the target version branch are up-to-date in your working copy. Look up the commit ID of the commit and then switch to your target version branch. Now create a new branch from that version branch:

git checkout -b backports/ISSUE_NUMBER

Now you can cherry-pick the commit in question to your backport branch:

git cherry-pick -s COMMIT_ID_HERE

Finally, create an additional commit to edit the changelog and send in your PR.

FAQ

Who decides if a feature will be implemented and how is that decision made?

When you submit an enhancement request, the core team looks at your issue first. Given the size of the code, adding a new feature is always a careful balancing act. The core team takes the following points into consideration:

  1. Is it possible to implement this on a technical level?
    Sometimes, even if a feature would be extremely useful, the state of the codebase doesn't let us do it.
  2. Does the feature cause more technical debt?
    A feature request may hide a larger issue under the hood. Sometimes it is more desirable to resolve the underlying issue instead of implementing the feature in isolation.
  3. Is there someone who would do the work?
    The core team doesn't have the capacity to implement everything, so for many issues community contributions are very welcome. Sometimes companies external to OpenTofu decide to dedicate developers for the development of a specific larger feature, which can also weigh in on the decision-making process.
  4. Is there enough capacity on the core team to support a community contributor?
    Core engineers dedicate time to review PRs and help community members with questions as we don't expect contributors to implement the entire feature in isolation. We actively participate with planning, reviews and writing documentation as needed, some more than others, which flows into the decision of accepting or rejecting an issue.
  5. Does this feature enable someone to do something new with OpenTofu they were not able to do before?
    We prioritize work based on community input and need. An issue with a large number of reactions is more likely to make it into the accepted phase, but if a viable workaround or tool exists, the feature is less likely to be accepted. If a feature is just the integration of a cool technology, but doesn't solve any problems for a large number of people, it will be rejected.

Depending on the core team's review, a feature request can have the following outcomes:

  1. The feature is accepted for development by the core team. This means that the core team will schedule it for an upcoming release and develop it.
  2. The feature is accepted and open for community contributions. The core team adds a help wanted label and waits for community volunteers to develop it.
  3. More information is needed. The core team will either add questions in comments, or when there is a deep technical issue to be resolved, call for an RFC to detail a possible implementation.
  4. More community input is needed. When an issue is, on its surface, valuable, but there is no track record of a large portion of the community needing it, the core team adds the needs community input label. If you are interested in the feature and would like to use it, please add a reaction to the issue and add a description on specifically what problem it would solve for you in a comment.
  5. The feature is rejected. If based on the criteria above it is not feasible to implement the feature, the core team closes the issue with an explanation why it is being closed.
  6. The feature is referred to the Technical Steering Committee. If the feature requires the commitment of a larger amount of core developer time, has legal implications, or otherwise requires leadership attention, the core team adds the feature to the agenda of the Technical Leadership Committee. Once decided, the TSC records the decision in the TSC_SUMMARY.md file.

I've been assigned an issue, now what?

First of all, thank you for volunteering! Before you begin coding, please take a minute to answer the following questions:

  1. Is the issue clear enough? Do you know what the expected outcome is? Sometimes, issues are not as clear as they should be. If the issue is unclear, please let us know in the #dev-general channel on the OpenTofu Slack so a core team member can clarify it.
  2. What's your timeline for implementing the issue? Please communicate how much time you estimate you'll need. We ask for this to avoid issues staying assigned to an inactive community member and blocking other contributors. However, if you find out you'll need more time, please feel free to comment on the issue and we'll leave the issue assigned to you.
  3. Do you have questions about parts of the OpenTofu codebase? Please post in #dev-general on the OpenTofu Slack for a quick answer. (Please avoid DMs as the person you are DM'ing may not be available or know the answer.)
  4. Do you have experience writing tests? All of our code-related PR's need adequate tests. Please familiarize yourself with testing in Go.
  5. Have you read this document? If not, please give it a quick skim, especially the sections about copyright and signoffs.

What do the labels mean?

  • pending-decision: there is no decision if this issue will be implemented yet. You can show your support for this issue by commenting on it and describing what implementing this issue would solve for you.
  • pending-steering-committee-decision: the core team has referred this issue to the Technical Steering Committee for a decision.
  • accepted: the issue is accepted for development by either the core team or a community contributor. Please check if it's assigned to someone and comment on the issue if you want to work on it.
  • help wanted: this issue is open for community contributions. Please check if it's assigned to someone and comment on the issue if you want to work on it.
  • good first issue: this issue is relatively simple. If you are looking for a first contribution, this may be for you. Please check if it's assigned to someone and comment on the issue if you want to work on it.
  • bug: it's broken and needs to be fixed.
  • enhancement: it's a short-form feature request. If the implementation path is unclear, an rfc may be needed in addition.
  • documentation: something that needs a description on the OpenTofu website.
  • rfc: a long-form discussion on building a feature or solving bug, see RFC.
  • question: the core team needs more information on the issue to decide.
  • needs-community-input: the core team needs to see how many people are affected by this issue. You can provide feedback by using reactions on the issue and adding your use case in the comments. (Please describe what problem it would solve for you specifically.)
  • needs-rfc: this issue needs a detailed technical description on how it would be implemented in the form of an RFC.

My issue / PR / comment is not getting any responses!

Please accept our apologies, sometimes issues and comments fall through the cracks. Please post in #dev-general on the OpenTofu Slack to alert the core team members to the lack of an answer.

When I run tofu version, it contains a -dev suffix. How do I get rid of it?

You can get rid of this suffix by changing the version.dev ldflag:

go build -ldflags "-w -s -X 'github.com/opentofu/opentofu/version.dev=no'" -o tofu ./cmd/tofu

How do I enable experimental features?

You can build tofu with the experimental features enabled using the main.experimentsAllowed ldflag set to yes:

go build -ldflags "-w -s -X 'main.experimentsAllowed=yes'" -o tofu ./cmd/tofu

Can you implement X in the language?

It depends. The OpenTofu language is based on the HCL language and the cty typing system. Since both are available under an open source license, and we prefer to keep compatibility as much as possible, we currently don't maintain a fork of these libraries. Language features may need to be partially or fully implemented in HCL or cty and if that is the case, we can't implement them in OpenTofu without changes to the respective libraries beforehand.

I don't like HCL, can you replace it?

HCL is baked into every corner of the OpenTofu codebase, so is here to stay. However, you can use the JSON configuration syntax to write your code in JSON instead of HCL.

Can you fix a bug in or add a feature to the Hashicorp providers, such as AWS, Azure, etc.?

We currently only maintain a read-only mirror of these providers for the purposes of building binaries for the OpenTofu registry which would otherwise not be available. They are not true downstream versions that we can add patches to and OpenTofu users expect them to work the same as the upstream versions. In short: no, we cannot fix bugs or add features to these providers.

Can you fork project X?

Currently, we are at capacity for development and do not have additional capacity to take on additional projects unless necessary for the continued work on OpenTofu. While the final determination lies with the Technical Steering Committee, the answer is likely no in almost all cases.

Who is the core team?

Core team members are full time developers sponsored by the participating companies. You can find the list of core developers in the MAINTAINERS file. Their role is to triage issues, work on feature development, help plan, review, and document community contributions, support the community, and refer feature requests to the Technical Steering Committee.

Can I become a core team member?

Possibly. Please look for open positions with the sponsoring companies as they hire core team members. The interview process is the same regardless of which sponsoring company you apply to. To become a core team member, you must be equally good at Go and at communication since much of our work is helping the community. Good luck!

Who is the Technical Steering Committee?

The Technical Steering Committee consists of one delegate from each company sponsoring the OpenTofu core team. You can find their names in the TSC_SUMMARY.md file. Their role is to decide on larger commitments of core developer time, as well as long-term strategic issues.