What causes "no remoteFiles provided for cleanup" in hashicorp/packer?

If you hit this in a stock Packer build, report it as a bug with the full debug log (PACKER_LOG=1).

no remoteFiles provided for cleanup

Error message

no remoteFiles provided for cleanup

What it means

createRemoteCleanUpCommand builds a PowerShell one-liner that deletes the uploaded remote files after execution. It refuses to generate that script when remoteFiles is empty, because there is nothing to clean up and uploading a cleanup script would itself leave a stray remote file. This is an internal invariant violation of the provisioner, not normally caused by user configuration.

Source

Thrown at provisioner/powershell/provisioner.go:446

		return cmd.RunWithUi(ctx, comm, ui)
	})
	if err != nil {
		log.Printf("remote cleanup script failed to upload; skipping the removal of temporary files: %s; ", strings.Join(uploadedScripts, ","))
	}

	if p.config.PauseAfter != 0 {
		ui.Say(fmt.Sprintf("Pausing %s after this provisioner...", p.config.PauseAfter))
		time.Sleep(p.config.PauseAfter)
	}

	return nil
}

// createRemoteCleanUpCommand will generated a powershell script that will remove remote files;
// returning a command that can be executed remotely to do the cleanup.
func (p *Provisioner) createRemoteCleanUpCommand(remoteFiles []string) (string, error) {
	if len(remoteFiles) == 0 {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("no remoteFiles provided for cleanup")
	}

	var b strings.Builder
	// This script should self destruct.
	remotePath := p.config.remoteCleanUpScriptPath
	remoteFiles = append(remoteFiles, remotePath)
	for _, filename := range remoteFiles {
		fmt.Fprintf(&b, "if (Test-Path %[1]s) {Remove-Item %[1]s}\n", filename)
	}

	if err := p.communicator.Upload(remotePath, strings.NewReader(b.String()), nil); err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("clean up script %q failed to upload: %s", remotePath, err)
	}

	data := p.generatedData
	data["Path"] = remotePath
	data["Vars"] = p.config.RemoteEnvVarPath
	p.config.ctx.Data = data

View on GitHub (pinned to eb36e3c3e4)

Solutions

If you hit this in a stock Packer build, report it as a bug with the full debug log (PACKER_LOG=1).
If you maintain a fork, ensure every uploaded remote file (script and env-var file) is appended to the remoteFiles list before cleanup is generated.
As a workaround, clean up leftover files manually on the guest; the error means nothing was deleted.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: fallback

Prevention

Use stock Packer; if triggered, capture PACKER_LOG=1 output and file a bug.
In forks, always register every uploaded remote file in the cleanup list.
Manually remove leftover remote files after a failed cleanup.

When it happens

Trigger: The provisioner calls createRemoteCleanUpCommand with an empty remoteFiles slice — i.e. no script/env-var remote files were recorded for deletion, which would indicate an internal bug in how the provisioner tracked uploaded files.

Common situations: Practically only seen during development/patching of the powershell provisioner itself, or when a modified code path skips registering uploaded files; end users should never trigger it via template configuration.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/packer@eb36e3c3e4 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/21f79bc1e31df82a. Report an issue: GitHub.