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

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

Shows details for one resource instance in state.

terraform state mv

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

terraform state rm

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