Terraform provides a command line interface (CLI) that can be called with the terraform command once you’ve installed Terraform onto your system.
To view a list of the commands available in your current Terraform version, run terraform with no additional arguments:
Usage: terraform [global options] <subcommand> [args]
The available commands for execution are listed below.
The primary workflow commands are given first, followed by
less common or more advanced commands.
Main commands:
init Prepare your working directory for other commands
validate Check whether the configuration is valid
plan Show changes required by the current configuration
apply Create or update infrastructure
destroy Destroy previously-created infrastructure
All other commands:
console Try Terraform expressions at an interactive command prompt
fmt Reformat your configuration in the standard style
force-unlock Release a stuck lock on the current workspace
get Install or upgrade remote Terraform modules
graph Generate a Graphviz graph of the steps in an operation
import Associate existing infrastructure with a Terraform resource
login Obtain and save credentials for a remote host
logout Remove locally-stored credentials for a remote host
metadata Metadata related commands
output Show output values from your root module
providers Show the providers required for this configuration
refresh Update the state to match remote systems
show Show the current state or a saved plan
state Advanced state management
taint Mark a resource instance as not fully functional
untaint Remove the 'tainted' state from a resource instance
version Show the current Terraform version
workspace Workspace management
Global options (use these before the subcommand, if any):
-chdir=DIR Switch to a different working directory before executing the
given subcommand.
-help Show this help output, or the help for a specified subcommand.
-version An alias for the "version" subcommand.
Main Commands for Terrafrom CLI are:
| Subcommand | Description |
|---|---|
| init | Initialize your Terraform working directory |
| validate | Checks if your configuration is valid |
| plan | Show changes that will be made to your current environment |
| apply | Create or update your environment |
| destroy | Delete the environment that was previously created |
The terraform init command initializes your Terraform working directory.
The terraform validate command runs checks to verify that the Terraform configuration in the working directory is syntactically valid, but does not validate remote services like remote state and provider APIs.
It is commonly used to validate reusable modules and ensure that the attribute names and value types are generally correct.
The terraform plan command creates and execution plan that provides you a preview of the changes that will be made to your infrastructure (ie. which resources will be created, which will be deleted, and which ones will be modified).
The terraform apply command executes the actions that are proposed from the Terraform plan.
The terraform destroy command deletes all remote resources that are managed by the current working directory’s Terraform configuration.
Note that if the resource was created outside of the particular Terraform configuration, it will not be destroyed.