hashicorp/packer

Feature: telnet, ftp provisioner

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#7971 opened on Aug 10, 2019

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enhancementhelp wanted

Description

Add a telnet provisioner, using FTP to transfer scripts, on behalf of legacy guest operating systems that do not have ssh, scp servers available.

Telnet provisioning with the option to inline scripts, is likely required for single-user operating systems that cannot run a file server application and a remote shell application concurrently.

Finally, (hot)key delays, for inline scripts and general telnet commands; and delays between telnet client session connections, will be required to ensure reliable communication for some graying telnet servers such as rmenu.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
go
Domain
infrastructure
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
4
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
over 1 week
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
Go programmingPacker plugin architectureTelnet and FTP protocols
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
15
Research direction
Review existing provisioners in the Packer codebase (e.g., shell or file provisioner) to understand the plugin architecture. Investigate how to implement a telnet client in Go using the 'net' package or a dedicated library. Look into Packer's provisioner interface and how to register a new provisioner. Consider whether FTP is necessary or if inline scripts alone would suffice.