command: "terraform validate" JSON support

In the long run we'd like to offer machine-readable output for more
commands, but for now we'll just start with a tactical feature in
"terraform validate" since this is useful for automated testing scenarios,
editor integrations, etc and doesn't include any representations of types
that are expected to have breaking changes in the near future.

Author: apparentlymart

command/validate.go

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package command
 
 import (
+	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
@@ -21,14 +22,23 @@ func (c *ValidateCommand) Run(args []string) int {
 		return 1
 	}
 
+	var jsonOutput bool
+
 	cmdFlags := c.Meta.flagSet("validate")
+	cmdFlags.BoolVar(&jsonOutput, "json", false, "produce JSON output")
 	cmdFlags.Usage = func() {
 		c.Ui.Error(c.Help())
 	}
 	if err := cmdFlags.Parse(args); err != nil {
 		return 1
 	}
 
+	// After this point, we must only produce JSON output if JSON mode is
+	// enabled, so all errors should be accumulated into diags and we'll
+	// print out a suitable result at the end, depending on the format
+	// selection. All returns from this point on must be tail-calls into
+	// c.showResults in order to produce the expected output.
+	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
 	args = cmdFlags.Args()
 
 	var dirPath string
@@ -39,19 +49,20 @@ func (c *ValidateCommand) Run(args []string) int {
 	}
 	dir, err := filepath.Abs(dirPath)
 	if err != nil {
-		c.Ui.Error(fmt.Sprintf(
-			"Unable to locate directory %v\n", err.Error()))
+		diags = diags.Append(fmt.Errorf("unable to locate module: %s", err))
+		return c.showResults(diags, jsonOutput)
 	}
 
 	// Check for user-supplied plugin path
 	if c.pluginPath, err = c.loadPluginPath(); err != nil {
-		c.Ui.Error(fmt.Sprintf("Error loading plugin path: %s", err))
-		return 1
+		diags = diags.Append(fmt.Errorf("error loading plugin path: %s", err))
+		return c.showResults(diags, jsonOutput)
 	}
 
-	rtnCode := c.validate(dir)
+	validateDiags := c.validate(dir)
+	diags = diags.Append(validateDiags)
 
-	return rtnCode
+	return c.showResults(diags, jsonOutput)
 }
 
 func (c *ValidateCommand) Synopsis() string {
@@ -89,20 +100,22 @@ Usage: terraform validate [options] [dir]
 
 Options:
 
+  -json        Produce output in a machine-readable JSON format, suitable for
+               use in e.g. text editor integrations.
+
   -no-color    If specified, output won't contain any color.
 `
 	return strings.TrimSpace(helpText)
 }
 
-func (c *ValidateCommand) validate(dir string) int {
+func (c *ValidateCommand) validate(dir string) tfdiags.Diagnostics {
 	var diags tfdiags.Diagnostics
 
 	_, cfgDiags := c.loadConfig(dir)
 	diags = diags.Append(cfgDiags)
 
 	if diags.HasErrors() {
-		c.showDiagnostics(diags)
-		return 1
+		return diags
 	}
 
 	// TODO: run a validation walk once terraform.NewContext is updated
@@ -128,10 +141,101 @@ func (c *ValidateCommand) validate(dir string) int {
 	diags = diags.Append(tfCtx.Validate())
 	*/
 
-	c.showDiagnostics(diags)
+	return diags
+}
+
+func (c *ValidateCommand) showResults(diags tfdiags.Diagnostics, jsonOutput bool) int {
+	switch {
+	case jsonOutput:
+		// FIXME: Eventually we'll probably want to factor this out somewhere
+		// to support machine-readable outputs for other commands too, but for
+		// now it's simplest to do this inline here.
+		type Pos struct {
+			Line   int `json:"line"`
+			Column int `json:"column"`
+			Byte   int `json:"byte"`
+		}
+		type Range struct {
+			Filename string `json:"filename"`
+			Start    Pos    `json:"start"`
+			End      Pos    `json:"end"`
+		}
+		type Diagnostic struct {
+			Severity string `json:"severity,omitempty"`
+			Summary  string `json:"summary,omitempty"`
+			Detail   string `json:"detail,omitempty"`
+			Range    *Range `json:"range,omitempty"`
+		}
+		type Output struct {
+			// We include some summary information that is actually redundant
+			// with the detailed diagnostics, but avoids the need for callers
+			// to re-implement our logic for deciding these.
+			Valid        bool         `json:"valid"`
+			ErrorCount   int          `json:"error_count"`
+			WarningCount int          `json:"warning_count"`
+			Diagnostics  []Diagnostic `json:"diagnostics"`
+		}
+
+		var output Output
+		output.Valid = true // until proven otherwise
+		for _, diag := range diags {
+			var jsonDiag Diagnostic
+			switch diag.Severity() {
+			case tfdiags.Error:
+				jsonDiag.Severity = "error"
+				output.ErrorCount++
+				output.Valid = false
+			case tfdiags.Warning:
+				jsonDiag.Severity = "warning"
+				output.WarningCount++
+			}
+
+			desc := diag.Description()
+			jsonDiag.Summary = desc.Summary
+			jsonDiag.Detail = desc.Detail
+
+			ranges := diag.Source()
+			if ranges.Subject != nil {
+				subj := ranges.Subject
+				jsonDiag.Range = &Range{
+					Filename: subj.Filename,
+					Start: Pos{
+						Line:   subj.Start.Line,
+						Column: subj.Start.Column,
+						Byte:   subj.Start.Byte,
+					},
+					End: Pos{
+						Line:   subj.End.Line,
+						Column: subj.End.Column,
+						Byte:   subj.End.Byte,
+					},
+				}
+			}
+
+			output.Diagnostics = append(output.Diagnostics, jsonDiag)
+		}
+
+		j, err := json.MarshalIndent(&output, "", "  ")
+		if err != nil {
+			// Should never happen because we fully-control the input here
+			panic(err)
+		}
+		c.Ui.Output(string(j))
+
+	default:
+		if len(diags) == 0 {
+			c.Ui.Output(c.Colorize().Color("[green][bold]Success![reset] The configuration is valid.\n"))
+		} else {
+			c.showDiagnostics(diags)
+
+			if !diags.HasErrors() {
+				c.Ui.Output(c.Colorize().Color("[green][bold]Success![reset] The configuration is valid, but there were some validation warnings as shown above.\n"))
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
 	if diags.HasErrors() {
 		return 1
 	}
-
-	return 0
+	return 1
 }