TF_CLI_ARGS incorrectly splices `workspace` commands

[dnitsch]

Terraform Version

Terraform version: 0.12.3  
Go runtime version: go1.12.4

Terraform Configuration Files

not an error with hcl

...

Debug Output

2019/06/26 16:49:09 [INFO] Terraform version: 0.12.3
2019/06/26 16:49:09 [INFO] Go runtime version: go1.12.4
2019/06/26 16:49:09 [INFO] CLI args: []string{"/terraform/versions/terraform-0.12.3", "workspace", "select", "dev-my-workspace"}
2019/06/26 16:49:09 [DEBUG] Attempting to open CLI config file: /Users/dusannitschneider/.terraformrc
2019/06/26 16:49:09 [DEBUG] File doesn't exist, but doesn't need to. Ignoring.
2019/06/26 16:49:09 [INFO] TF_CLI_ARGS value: "-var-file=../../../config/some_project_variables.tfvars -var=\"stage=dev\" -var=\"some_fqdn=gd-my-workspace.dev.some.domain.org\" -var=\"another_fqdn=am-my-workspace.dev.some.domain.org\""
2019/06/26 16:49:09 [INFO] CLI command args: []string{"workspace", "select", "-var-file=../../../config/some_project_variables.tfvars", "-var=stage=dev", "-var=some_fqdn=gd-my-workspace.dev.some.domain.org", "-var=another_fqdn=am-my-workspace.dev.some.domain.org", "dev-my-workspace"}

Crash Output

Expected Behavior

Switched to workspace "dev-my-workspace".

Actual Behavior

Usage: terraform workspace select NAME [DIR]

Select a different Terraform workspace.

Steps to Reproduce

terraform workspace select dev-my-workspace && terraform apply -auto-approve=true

NB: you can reproduce with any single -arg passed in to export TF_CLI_ARGS="-var="foo=bar"

Additional Context

We mainly use TF only inside automation and would like to upgrade to 12.

Based on this #17094 (comment) - what is the future roadmap for the product or best practice going forward as we use a combination of TF_VAR_name and TF_CLI_ARGS will one of these be deprecated or be given preference over the other.

Off topic (and potentially opinion based), but with regards to the -var-file=... parameter for large estates where many components rely only on a subset of globally declared defaults - can/should these be migrated to TF_VAR_ type instantiation for specific executions or can undeclared variables be used directly inside resources now (as of 12)?

References

• TF_CLI_ARGS errors when CLI command args: []string{"output", "-input=false", "whatever"} #17094

There is an open PR, which might go some way to fixing this, though not quite looked into the method

[mildwonkey]

The problem was that flags were being passed to the command that shouldn't be - the error message should have been "flag provided but not defined". I found that the error messages from the flags package were, on occasion, getting swallowed. Fixed in #22373

I'm going to lock this issue because it has been closed for 30 days ⏳. This helps our maintainers find and focus on the active issues.

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