Terraform CheatSheet for Developers

Format and Validate Terraform code

Command	Description
terraform fmt	Format code per HCL canonical standard
terraform validate	Validate code for syntax
terraform validate -backend=false	Validate code skip backend

Initialize your Terraform working directory

Command	Description
terraform init	Initialize directory, pull down providers
terraform init -get-plugins=false	Initialize directory, do not download plugins
terraform init -verify-plugins=false	Initialize directory, do not verify plugins for Hashicorp signature

Plan, Deploy and Cleanup Infrastructure

Command	Description
terraform apply --auto-approve	Apply changes without being prompted to enter “yes”
terraform destroy --auto-approve	Destroy/cleanup deployment without being prompted for “yes”
terraform plan -out plan.out	Output the deployment plan to plan.out
terraform apply plan.out	Use the plan.out plan file to deploy infrastructure
terraform plan -destroy	Outputs a destroy plan
terraform apply -target=aws_instance.my_ec2	Only apply/deploy changes to the targeted resource
terraform apply -var my_region_variable=us-east-1	Pass a variable via command-line while applying a configuration
terraform apply -lock=true	Lock the state file so it can’t be modified by any other Terraform apply or modification action
terraform apply refresh=false	Do not reconcile state file with real-world resources
terraform apply --parallelism=5	Number of simultaneous resource operations
terraform refresh	Reconcile the state in Terraform state file with real-world resources
terraform providers	Get information about providers used in current configuration

Terraform Workspace

Command	Description
terraform workspace new mynewworkspace	Create a new workspace
terraform workspace select default	Change to the selected workspace
terraform workspace list	List out all workspaces

Terraform State Manipulation

Command	Description
terraform state show aws_instance.my_ec2	Show details stored in Terraform state for the resource
terraform state pull > terraform.tfstate	Download and output terraform state to a file
terraform state mv aws_iam_role.my_ssm_role module.custom_module	Move a resource tracked via state to different module
terraform state replace-provider hashicorp/aws registry.custom.com/aws	Replace an existing provider with another
terraform state list	List out all the resources tracked via the current state file
terraform state rm aws_instance.myinstace	Unmanage a resource, delete it from Terraform state file

Terraform Import And Outputs

Command	Description
terraform import aws_instance.new_ec2_instance i-abcd1234	Import EC2 instance with id i-abcd1234 into the Terraform resource named “new_ec2_instance” of type “aws_instance”
terraform output	List all outputs as stated in code
terraform output instance_public_ip	List out a specific declared
terraform output -json	List all outputs in JSON format

Terraform Miscelleneous commands

Command	Description
terraform version	display Terraform binary version, also warns if version is old
terraform get -update=true	download and update modules in the “root” module.