Unclear what will be replaced in-line for random_string change

[syphernl]

Terraform CLI and Provider Versions

Terraform v1.2.9
on linux_amd64

• provider registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/aws v3.75.2
• provider registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/random v3.4.2

Terraform Configuration

resource "random_string" "rds_password" {
  length  = 32
  special = false
}

Expected Behavior

A more clear explanation as to what will change, so that this change can be approved properly.

Actual Behavior

Terraform only indicates the following:

Terraform will perform the following actions:

  # random_string.rds_password will be updated in-place
  ~ resource "random_string" "rds_password" {
        id          = "REDACTED"
        # (11 unchanged attributes hidden)
    }

Before and after there is a slight difference in the statefile (namely override_special and sensitive_attributes:

{
      "mode": "managed",
      "type": "random_string",
      "name": "rds_password",
      "provider": "provider[\"registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/random\"]",
      "instances": [
        {
          "schema_version": 2,
          "attributes": {
            "id": "REDACTED",
            "keepers": null,
            "length": 32,
            "lower": true,
            "min_lower": 0,
            "min_numeric": 0,
            "min_special": 0,
            "min_upper": 0,
            "number": true,
            "numeric": true,
            "override_special": null,
            "result": "REDACTED",
            "special": false,
            "upper": true
          },
          "sensitive_attributes": [
            
          ],
          "private": "eyJzY2hlbWFfdmVyc2lvbiI6IjEifQ=="
        }
      ]
    },

After:

    {
      "mode": "managed",
      "type": "random_string",
      "name": "rds_password",
      "provider": "provider[\"registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/random\"]",
      "instances": [
        {
          "schema_version": 2,
          "attributes": {
            "id": "REDACTED",
            "keepers": null,
            "length": 32,
            "lower": true,
            "min_lower": 0,
            "min_numeric": 0,
            "min_special": 0,
            "min_upper": 0,
            "number": true,
            "numeric": true,
            "override_special": "",
            "result": "REDACTED",
            "special": false,
            "upper": true
          },
          "sensitive_attributes": []
        }
      ]
    },

Steps to Reproduce

1. terraform apply on Random < 3.4.0
2. terraform apply on Random >= 3.4.0

How much impact is this issue causing?

Low

Logs

No response

Additional Information

This could be related to #302

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[bflad]

Hi @syphernl 👋 Thank you for raising this and apologies you ran into trouble here.

The provider unfortunately does not have any control about the plan difference output in this case as Terraform (due to some legacy reasons) is likely hiding the override_special attribute errantly going from null to "" with version 3.4.2.

The good news though is that this should be resolved by upgrading to 3.4.3, which was recently released. If the resource happened to be applied with 3.4.2, it may show one more plan to go from "" back to null then it'll stabilize. Additional reference: #312

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