packer 0.6 amazon-ebs builder getting <Filtered> error

[Conor Horan-Kates]

i'm running into a weird issue with packer when attempting to use the amazon-ebs builder (with a previously working template), and am looking for some guidance/suggestions.

here is the output i think is relevant:

2014/07/01 19:39:32 Executing command: build
2014/07/01 19:39:32 Loading builder: amazon-ebs
2014/07/01 19:39:32 Waiting for RPC address for: /Users/conor/scratch/packer/packer-builder-amazon-ebs
2014/07/01 19:39:32 /Users/conor/scratch/packer/packer-builder-amazon-ebs: 2014/07/01 19:39:32 Plugin build against Packer 'eeefde8fc71444fdfc77711dc0e2789fa9b3b7d2'
2014/07/01 19:39:32 /Users/conor/scratch/packer/packer-builder-amazon-ebs: 2014/07/01 19:39:32 Plugin minimum port: 10000
2014/07/01 19:39:32 /Users/conor/scratch/packer/packer-builder-amazon-ebs: 2014/07/01 19:39:32 Plugin maximum port: 25000
2014/07/01 19:39:32 /Users/conor/scratch/packer/packer-builder-amazon-ebs: 2014/07/01 19:39:32 Plugin address: unix /var/folders/ks/g9h60c2n47b1tsf_p71s875m0000gn/T/packer-plugin908575263
2014/07/01 19:39:32 /Users/conor/scratch/packer/packer-builder-amazon-ebs: 2014/07/01 19:39:32 Waiting for connection...
2014/07/01 19:39:32 /Users/conor/scratch/packer/packer-builder-amazon-ebs: 2014/07/01 19:39:32 Serving a plugin connection...
2014/07/01 19:39:32 ui: [1;32mamazon-ebs output will be in this color. [0m
2014/07/01 19:39:32 /Users/conor/scratch/packer/packer-command-build: 2014/07/01 19:39:32 Preparing build: amazon-ebs
2014/07/01 19:39:32 /Users/conor/scratch/packer/packer-builder-amazon-ebs: 2014/07/01 19:39:32 <Filtered><<Filtered>F<Filtered>i<Filtered>l<Filtered>t<Filtered>e<Filtered>r<Filtered>e<Filtered>d<Filtered>><Filtered>C<Filtered>....
2014/07/01 19:39:32 /Users/conor/scratch/packer/packer-command-build: 2014/07/01 19:39:32 Waiting on builds to complete...
2014/07/01 19:39:32 /Users/conor/scratch/packer/packer-command-build: 2014/07/01 19:39:32 Starting build run: amazon-ebs
2014/07/01 19:39:42 ui error: [1;31mBuild 'amazon-ebs' errored: Get http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/placement/availability-zone: dial tcp 169.254.169.254:80: host is down [0m

the complete debug output is available here: https://gist.github.com/chorankates/945cf0cd444f99b66c02

strangely, the output is filled with ~180k characters effectively repeating of "Filtered><<Filtered>F<Filtered>i<Filtered>l<Filtered>t" immediately after:

2014/07/01 19:39:32 /Users/conor/scratch/packer/packer-command-build: 2014/07/01 19:39:32 Preparing build: amazon-ebs

i'm not aware of any change on my side that would have caused this problem (able to control AWS resources with ec2-* commands, tested on multiple internet connections), but no one on irc seemed to be having the same problem, and i couldn't find any other references in this group or on the github issues page.. any thoughts on what's going on here?
 

[Conor Horan-Kates]

sorry for the noise, it looks like the problem was on my side: properties that the amazon-ebs builder relied (access key, secret key, region and source_ami) were not being properly populated.

you can't see it in the output from 'build', but from 'validate', i see: aws_secret_key:<Filtered>,aws_access_key:<Filtered>... i feel like there should be a better error message here, but probably should have noticed this myself.

-Conor