When in 'remote' planning mode, TFC isn't respecting the '-no-color' flag about terraform-github-actions

[dflook]

I haven't been able to reproduce this. Can you post the terraform backend config you are using and the workflow? Where do you see this output? in the workflow log, PR comment, or both?

[DanyC97]

Sure, give me some time to dig up all the logs, will get back to you shortly 👍

[DanyC97]

And found it.

Where do you see this output? in the workflow log, PR comment, or both?

in the workflow log it looks okay which match what is shown in TFC UI. However in PR comment is as per the report with the special chars

### backend

cat examples/backend_partial_example.tf

terraform {
  cloud {
    organization = "dani-free-org"
  }
}

Reusable workflow

name: 🤝 Reusable Terraform Plan

on:
  workflow_call:
    inputs:
      tf_workspace:
        description: "Name of the terraform workspace"
        required: false
        type: string
      tf_path:
        description: "Path to the terraform configuration"
        required: false
        default: .
        type: string
      tf_variables:
        description: "Variable definitions"
        required: false
        type: string
      tf_var_file:
        description: "List of var file paths, one per line"
        required: false
        type: string
      tf_backend_config:
        description: "List of backend config values to set, one per line"
        required: false
        type: string
      tf_backend_config_file:
        description: "Path to a backend config file"
        required: false
        type: string
    secrets:
      tf_api_token:
        description: "Terraform Cloud API token."
        required: true
      gcp_project_id:
        description: "Google Cloud Project id"
        required: false
      gcp_project_number:
        description: "Google Cloud Project number"
        required: false
      gcp_wif_sa_id:
        description: "Google Cloud Workload Identity Federation Service Account id"
        required: false
      gcp_wif_pool_name:
        description: "Google Cloud Workload Identity Federation pool name"
        required: false

# Allow only one of this workflow to run at a time per branch.
concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.head_ref || github.run_id }}
  cancel-in-progress: false

# Allow read repository contents, write deployments and pull requests.
permissions:
  contents: read
  id-token: write
  pull-requests: write

env:
  GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

jobs:
  tf-plan-run:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: ⤵️ Check out code from GitHub
        uses: actions/[email protected] # v3.5.2

      # unfortunately Github Action interpreter currently doesn't identify
      # the secrets key word when used in an if conditional expression
      - name: Check for input secret availability
        id: secret-check
        # perform secret check & put boolean result as an output
        shell: bash
        run: |
          if [ "${{ secrets.gcp_project_id }}" != '' ] && [ "${{ secrets.gcp_project_number }}" != '' ] && [ "${{ secrets.gcp_wif_sa_id }}" != '' ] && [ "${{ secrets.gcp_wif_pool_name }}" != '' ]; then
            echo "available=true" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT;
          else
            echo "available=false" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT;
          fi

      # only if an input param is provided we run otherwise skip
      - name: Setup Google Auth
        if: ${{ steps.secret-check.outputs.available == 'true' }}
        uses: google-github-actions/[email protected] # v1.1.1
        with:
          service_account: ${{ secrets.gcp_wif_sa_id }}@${{ secrets.gcp_project_id }}.iam.gserviceaccount.com
          workload_identity_provider: "projects/${{ secrets.gcp_project_number }}/locations/global/workloadIdentityPools/${{ secrets.gcp_wif_pool_name }}/providers/github-provider"
          token_format: access_token
          access_token_lifetime: 300s

      # we need only the minimum config, in our case we have also baked in
      # the org although we could have pass in as env variable
      - name: Render the terraform backend_partial_example.tf file
        shell: bash
        run: |
          cp examples/backend_partial_example.tf backend.tf

      - name: Terraform plan
        uses: dflook/[email protected] # v1.35.0
        env:
          TERRAFORM_CLOUD_TOKENS: app.terraform.io=${{ secrets.tf_api_token }}
          TFE_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.tf_api_token }}
        with:
          workspace: ${{ inputs.tf_workspace }}
          path: ${{ inputs.tf_path }}
          variables: ${{ inputs.tf_variables }}
          var_file: ${{ inputs.tf_var_file }}

Caller workflow

name: 🤝 CI/CD Terraform

on:
  pull_request:
    types: [labeled, opened, synchronize]

jobs:
  get-pr-labels:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    outputs:
      pr-details: ${{ steps.get-pull-request.outputs.pr_labels }}

    steps:
      - name: Fetch pull request labels details
        id: get-pull-request
        uses: 8BitJonny/[email protected] # v2.2.0
        with:
          # Verbose setting SHA when using Pull_Request event trigger to fix #16. (For push even trigger this is not necessary.)
          sha: ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
          # Only return if PR is still open. (By default it returns PRs in any state.)
          filterOutClosed: true

  ci-terraform-plan:
    needs: get-pr-labels
    if: |-
      ${{
        !(contains(needs.get-pr-labels.outputs.pr-details, 'tf:apply') ||
        contains(needs.get-pr-labels.outputs.pr-details, 'tf:auto-apply') )
      }}
    uses: ./.github/workflows/reusable-terraform-plan-run.yml
    with:
      # hardcoded as is different than the repo name
      tf_workspace: tfc-mgmt
      tf_var_file: ./config-tfvars/tfc-config.tfvars
    secrets:
      tf_api_token: ${{ secrets.TFC_API_TOKEN }}

  cd-terraform-apply:
    needs: get-pr-labels
    if: |-
      ${{
        contains(needs.get-pr-labels.outputs.pr-details, 'tf:apply') ||
        contains(needs.get-pr-labels.outputs.pr-details, 'tf:auto-apply')
      }}
    uses: ./.github/workflows/reusable-terraform-apply-run.yml
    with:
      # hardcoded as is different than the repo name
      tf_workspace: tfc-mgmt
      tf_var_file: ./config-tfvars/tfc-config.tfvars
    secrets:
      tf_api_token: ${{ secrets.TFC_API_TOKEN }}

[dflook]

Thanks, I think I've tracked this down to a setting in the Terraform Cloud workspace.
In the "Workspace Settings", in the "General" page there is an option for "User Interface". When this is set to "Structured Run Output" everything works as expected. When this is set to "Console UI", it tries to use colours.

When I create a new workspace, this is set to "Structured Run Output". Can you check what your workspace is set to?

[DanyC97]

Arrrrgghhh, how silly from my side to not check that setting, i completely forgot i've changed the default setting. Indeed that is the case.

i'll leave it with you if you want to have an extra note in the docs to mention it but for now i'll close this issue as is nothing to fix.

thanks @dflook !