Terraform Associate 004 - Commands & Env Variables

terraform init

Initializes the directory (backend setup, downloads providers/modules, creates .terraform/ and lock file).

terraform init -upgrade

Upgrades providers/modules to the newest versions allowed by constraints and updates .terraform.lock.hcl.

terraform init -backend-config=KEY=VALUE

Supplies backend settings at init time (repeatable), avoids hardcoding backend values in HCL.

terraform init -backend-config=FILE

Loads backend settings from a file (commonly backend.hcl).

terraform fmt

Formats Terraform files to standard style and rewrites the files.

terraform fmt -recursive

Formats Terraform files in the current directory and all subdirectories.

terraform validate

Validates the configuration (syntax + internal consistency). No remote calls, no state changes.

terraform init -reconfigure

Reinitializes the backend/provider setup, ignoring any previously saved init settings (useful after changing backend config).

terraform plan -out=FILE

Saves the plan to a file for later review/apply.

terraform apply FILE

Applies a previously saved plan file.

terraform apply -auto-approve

Applies without prompting for confirmation.

terraform workspace list

Lists workspaces.

terraform workspace new <NAME>

Creates and switches to a new workspace.

terraform workspace delete <NAME>

Deletes a workspace (if allowed by backend, and typically only when empty/safe).

terraform plan

Builds an execution plan by comparing config to state and refreshing from provider (drift detection happens here).

terraform plan -refresh-only

Updates state to match real infrastructure without proposing changes to infrastructure.

terraform apply

Applies the planned changes and updates state.

terraform apply -refresh-only

Refreshes state only, no infrastructure changes.

terraform apply -replace="ADDR"

Forces Terraform to destroy and recreate the specific resource instance at that address on the next apply.

terraform show

Displays state or a saved plan file in human-readable form.

terraform show -json

Outputs state/plan in JSON for tooling.

terraform output

Prints outputs from the current state.

terraform output <NAME>

Prints a single output value.

terraform output -json

print your Terraform outputs as machine-readable JSON instead of the pretty human format

terraform graph

Outputs a DOT graph of the dependency graph (pipe to Graphviz to render).

terraform state list

Lists resources tracked in the current state.

terraform state show <ADDRESS>

Shows details for one resource instance in state.

terraform state mv <SRC> <DST>

Moves/renames a resource address in state (no infra change by itself).

terraform state rm <ADDRESS>

Removes a resource from state only (resource still exists in the provider).

terraform state pull

Downloads and prints the current remote state.

terraform state push

Uploads a local state file to the configured backend (dangerous, used for recovery/migration).

TF_LOG

Sets Terraform log verbosity (TRACE/DEBUG/INFO/WARN/ERROR) to enable debugging output.

TF_LOG_PATH

File path where Terraform writes logs (used with TF_LOG so logs go to a file instead of the terminal).

TF_VAR_<NAME>

Sets an input variable from the environment (ex: TFVARregion="us-west-2" maps to var.region).

TF_INPUT

Controls interactive prompts (set to 0/false to disable prompting, like -input=false).

TF_IN_AUTOMATION

Tells Terraform it’s running in CI/automation so output and prompts are automation-friendly.

TF_WORKSPACE

Selects the active workspace via environment variable (instead of terraform workspace select).

TF_DATA_DIR

Changes where Terraform stores its working directory data (the .terraform directory contents).

terraform fmt -check

Validates formatting and exits with status code 3 if files are not properly formatted (useful in CI/CD)

terraform init -migrate-state

Re-initializes Terraform and migrates the existing state from the old backend to the new/changed backend configuration