have first-class enabled/disabled for modules and resources

[schollii]

Current Terraform Version

Terraform v0.12.24
+ provider.aws v2.50.0
+ provider.local v1.4.0
+ provider.null v2.1.2
+ provider.template v2.1.2

Use-cases

Give the user of your module the option to disable creation of certain resources or modules

Attempted Solutions

Use "count" (or different name) where 0 means disabled, and 1 means enabled.
This solution works but causes the resource to become a list of resources. Eg

resource "abc_type" "something" {
   count = var.enabled ? 0 : 1
   ...
}

causes abc_type.something to be a list of length 1 if "enabled" is true. This means everywhere in the code that this single resource is referenced, a '[0]' must be appended. This adds noise to the code and obfuscates intent.

The usage of "count" meta-variable has worked but it is now time for HCL2 resources to get a proper "enabled" meta-variable.

Proposal

HCL2 should support the following syntax:

resource "abc_type" "something" {
   enabled = var.enabled
   ...
}

If enabled is false, the resource should not be instantiated.

[wasfree]

Hi @schollii,
agree with you, this would be a cool feature. But it seems your request is duplicate of #21953.

[schollii]

Awesome, thanks for the info I have added my vote.

[ghost]

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.

If you have found a problem that seems similar to this, please open a new issue and complete the issue template so we can capture all the details necessary to investigate further.