github.com/aclaygray/packer@v1.3.2/website/source/docs/other/environment-variables.html.md (about) 1 --- 2 description: 'Packer uses a variety of environmental variables.' 3 layout: docs 4 page_title: 'Environment Variables - Other' 5 sidebar_current: 'docs-other-environment-variables' 6 --- 7 8 # Environment Variables for Packer 9 10 Packer uses a variety of environmental variables. A listing and description of 11 each can be found below: 12 13 - `PACKER_CACHE_DIR` - The location of the packer cache. 14 15 - `PACKER_CONFIG` - The location of the core configuration file. The format of 16 the configuration file is basic JSON. See the [core configuration 17 page](/docs/other/core-configuration.html). 18 19 - `PACKER_LOG` - Setting this to any value other than "" (empty string) or "0" will enable the logger. See the 20 [debugging page](/docs/other/debugging.html). 21 22 - `PACKER_LOG_PATH` - The location of the log file. Note: `PACKER_LOG` must be 23 set for any logging to occur. See the [debugging 24 page](/docs/other/debugging.html). 25 26 - `PACKER_NO_COLOR` - Setting this to any value will disable color in 27 the terminal. 28 29 - `PACKER_PLUGIN_MAX_PORT` - The maximum port that Packer uses for 30 communication with plugins, since plugin communication happens over TCP 31 connections on your local host. The default is 25,000. See the [core 32 configuration page](/docs/other/core-configuration.html). 33 34 - `PACKER_PLUGIN_MIN_PORT` - The minimum port that Packer uses for 35 communication with plugins, since plugin communication happens over TCP 36 connections on your local host. The default is 10,000. See the [core 37 configuration page](/docs/other/core-configuration.html). 38 39 - `CHECKPOINT_DISABLE` - When Packer is invoked it sometimes calls out to 40 [checkpoint.hashicorp.com](https://checkpoint.hashicorp.com/) to look for 41 new versions of Packer. If you want to disable this for security or privacy 42 reasons, you can set this environment variable to `1`. 43 44 - `TMPDIR` (Unix) / `TMP` (Windows) - The location of the directory used for temporary files (defaults 45 to `/tmp` on Linux/Unix and `%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp` on Windows 46 Vista and above). It might be necessary to customize it when working 47 with large files since `/tmp` is a memory-backed filesystem in some Linux 48 distributions in which case `/var/tmp` might be preferred.