| --- |
| page_title: filebase64 - Functions - Configuration Language |
| description: |- |
| The filebase64 function reads the contents of the file at the given path and |
| returns them as a base64-encoded string. |
| --- |
| |
| # `filebase64` Function |
| |
| `filebase64` reads the contents of a file at the given path and returns them as |
| a base64-encoded string. |
| |
| ```hcl |
| filebase64(path) |
| ``` |
| |
| The result is a Base64 representation of the raw bytes in the given file. |
| Strings in the Terraform language are sequences of Unicode characters, so |
| Base64 is the standard way to represent raw binary data that cannot be |
| interpreted as Unicode characters. Resource types that operate on binary |
| data will accept this data encoded in Base64, thus avoiding the need to |
| decode the result of this function. |
| |
| Terraform uses the "standard" Base64 alphabet as defined in |
| [RFC 4648 section 4](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4648#section-4). |
| |
| This function can be used only with functions that already exist as static |
| files on disk at the beginning of a Terraform run. Language functions do not |
| participate in the dependency graph, so this function cannot be used with |
| files that are generated dynamically during a Terraform operation. |
| |
| ## Examples |
| |
| ``` |
| > filebase64("${path.module}/hello.txt") |
| SGVsbG8gV29ybGQ= |
| ``` |
| |
| ## Related Functions |
| |
| * [`file`](/language/functions/file) also reads the contents of a given file, |
| but interprets the data as UTF-8 text and returns the result directly |
| as a string, without any further encoding. |
| * [`base64decode`](/language/functions/base64decode) can decode a Base64 string representing |
| bytes in UTF-8, but in practice `base64decode(filebase64(...))` is equivalent |
| to the shorter expression `file(...)`. |
