Commands

init

• downloads the provider plugins and modules and initializes the backend
• stores them in the .terraform folder
• creates a dependency lock file to enforce the same versions of the providers and modules (.terraform.lock.hcl)
• with the -upgrade flag, it will upgrade the providers and modules to the latest version that matches the version constraints in the configuration

get

• downloads only modules and stores them in the .terraform folder

validate

• validates the syntax of the terraform files
• checks for required variables and provider configuration
• does not check for correctness of the code (e.g. if a resource exists)

fmt

• formats the terraform files
• with the --diff flag, it will show the changes that will be made

console

• opens an interactive console to test expressions

plan

• creates an execution plan that shows what will be done when apply is called
• shows what resources will be created, modified or destroyed
• shows the order of operations
• the -out flag can be used to save the plan to a file that can be used with apply to apply the plan

show

• Reads and outputs a Terraform state or plan file in a human-readable form
• If no path is specified, the current state will be shown.

apply

• creates, modifies or destroys resources
• creates a state file that contains the current state of the infrastructure (local or remote)

destroy

• destroys all resources that are defined in the configuration
• does not remove the state file