How to fix Invalid function argument on line in provider credentials file google Invalid value for path parameter no file exists

Apr 19, 2021 · 3 min read  ·
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Working with terraform can tricky sometime and specially if you are working with cloud service provider such as Google Cloud Platform.

I have faced the following issue while I was working with my first Terrafrom project with Google Cloud.

Error Invalid function argument on main.tf line 2, in provider google credentials = file(gcp-account.json) Invalid value for path parameter no file exists at gcp-account.json this function works only with files that are distributed as part of the configuration source code, so if this file will be created by a resource in this configuration you must instead obtain this result from an attribute of that resource.

Initially the issue looked quite scary but when I looked the issue carefully then I realise - I had incorrect path for my credential JSON file.

Here is my terraform file in which I had mentioned incorrect path for gcp-account.json

 1provider "google" {
 2     credentials = file("/rwagh/gcp-account.json")   /*Incorrect path - It should be absolute path*/ 
 3     project     = "gcp-terraform-307119"
 4     region      = "europe-west4"
 5     zone        = "europe-west4-a"
 6}
 7
 8resource "google_compute_instance" "default" {
 9  name         = "test"
10  machine_type = "e2-micro"
11
12  boot_disk {
13    initialize_params {
14      image = "debian-cloud/debian-9"
15    }
16  }
17
18  network_interface {
19    network = "default"
20
21    access_config {
22      // Ephemeral IP
23    }
24  }
25}

How to fix?

To fix this issue you should always use absolute path inside your terraform file.

Example -

1credentials = file("<Absolute path to .pem file e.g /home/rwagh/id_rsa.pem>")
2
3//or
4
5credentials = file("<Absolute path to .json file e.g /home/rwagh/gcp-account.json>")

Here is my final terraform file after replacing with absolute path

 1provider "google" {
 2     credentials = file("/home/rwagh/gcp-account.json")   /*Use absolute path*/ 
 3     project     = "gcp-terraform-307119"
 4     region      = "europe-west4"
 5     zone        = "europe-west4-a"
 6}
 7
 8resource "google_compute_instance" "default" {
 9  name         = "test"
10  machine_type = "e2-micro"
11
12  boot_disk {
13    initialize_params {
14      image = "debian-cloud/debian-9"
15    }
16  }
17
18  network_interface {
19    network = "default"
20
21    access_config {
22      // Ephemeral IP
23    }
24  }
25}

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