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devto/posts/running-packer-hcl2upgrade-and-getting-pkrhcl-file-with-template-hcl2upgrade-unexpected-in-operand.md

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+---
+title: Running packer hcl2_upgrade and getting pkr.hcl file with template hcl2_upgrade unexpected in operand
+published: true
+description: 'Introduction   Since Packer v1.7.0, it is recommended to use HCL2 instead of JSON for Packer...'
+tags:
+  - Packer
+  - HashiCorp
+published_at: '2023-05-31 22:00 +0000'
+id: 1661911
+date: '2023-05-31T22:00:00.000Z'
+---
+
+## Introduction
+
+Since Packer v1.7.0, it is recommended to use HCL2 instead of JSON for Packer templates.
+The `.pkr.hcl` file generated by the `hcl2_upgrade` command, which converts a Packer template written in JSON to HCL2 format, will output `"template: hcl2_upgrade:3: unexpected \"\\\\\" in operand"` in the `.pkr.hcl` file generated by executing the `.pkr.hcl` command.
+
+## Solution
+
+https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/issues/10728#issuecomment-793199077
+
+In this case, the `\"` (escaped quote) used for escaping was not parsing JSON properly.
+You can work around this problem by changing `\"` (escaped quote) to backtick.
+
+### Before
+
+Running `packer hcl2_upgrade` on a JSON file defined as follows...
+
+```json
+{
+  "builders": [{
+    "type": "amazon-ebs", ...
+    ...
+    "ami_name": "ami_name-{{isotime \"2006-01-02-15-04-MST\"| clean_resource_name}}"
+  }], }
+}
+```
+
+The following `.pkr.hcl` file will be generated.
+
+```hcl
+# could not parse template for the following block: "template: hcl2_upgrade:3: unexpected \"\\\\\" in operand"
+
+source "amazon-ebs" "autogenerated_1" {
+  ami_name = "ami_name-{{isotime \"2006-01-02-15-04-MST\"| clean_resource_name}}"
+```
+
+### After
+
+After changing the description and running `packer hcl2_upgrade`...
+
+```json
+{
+  "builders": [{
+    "type": "amazon-ebs",.
+    ...
+    "ami_name": "ami_name-{{isotime `2006-01-02-15-04-MST`| clean_resource_name}}"
+  }], ...
+}
+```
+
+`"template: hcl2_upgrade:3: unexpected \"\\\\\" in operand"` is not output in the `.pkr.hcl` file,
+but a `.pkr.hcl` file using the intended format (`legacy_isotime`).
+
+```hcl
+source "amazon-ebs" "autogenerated_1" {
+  ami_name = "ami_name-{{ clean_resource_name `${legacy_isotime("2006-01-02-15-04-MST")}` }}"
+
+```
+
+## References
+
+https://github.com/hashicorp/packer/issues/10728
+
+https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/docs/v1.7.x/commands/hcl2_upgrade
+
+https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/tutorials/configuration-language/hcl2-upgrade
+
+https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/docs/templates/hcl_templates/functions/datetime/legacy_isotime
+
+https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/docs/templates/legacy_json_templates/engine
+
+https://www.packer.io/