---
page_title: Basic CLI Features
description: An introduction to the terraform command and its available subcommands.
---

# Basic CLI Features

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The command line interface to Terraform is via the `terraform` command, which
accepts a variety of subcommands such as `terraform init` or `terraform plan`.
A full list of all of the supported subcommands is in the navigation section
of this page.

We refer to the `terraform` command line tool as "Terraform CLI" elsewhere
in the documentation. This terminology is often used to distinguish it from
other components you might use in the Terraform product family, such as
[Terraform Cloud](/cloud-docs) or
the various [Terraform providers](/language/providers), which
are developed and released separately from Terraform CLI.

To view a list of the commands available in your current Terraform version,
run `terraform` with no additional arguments:

```text
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
  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.
```

(The output from your current Terraform version may be different than the
above example.)

To get specific help for any specific command, use the `-help` option with the
relevant subcommand. For example, to see help about the "validate" subcommand
you can run `terraform validate -help`.

The inline help built in to Terraform CLI describes the most important
characteristics of each command. For more detailed information, refer to each
command's section of this documentation, available in the navigation
section of this page.

## Switching working directory with `-chdir`

The usual way to run Terraform is to first switch to the directory containing
the `.tf` files for your root module (for example, using the `cd` command), so
that Terraform will find those files automatically without any extra arguments.

In some cases though — particularly when wrapping Terraform in automation
scripts — it can be convenient to run Terraform from a different directory than
the root module directory. To allow that, Terraform supports a global option
`-chdir=...` which you can include before the name of the subcommand you intend
to run:

```
terraform -chdir=environments/production apply
```

The `chdir` option instructs Terraform to change its working directory to the
given directory before running the given subcommand. This means that any files
that Terraform would normally read or write in the current working directory
will be read or written in the given directory instead.

There are two exceptions where Terraform will use the original working directory
even when you specify `-chdir=...`:

* Settings in the [CLI Configuration](/cli/config/config-file) are not for a specific
  subcommand and Terraform processes them before acting on the `-chdir`
  option.

* In case you need to use files from the original working directory as part
  of your configuration, a reference to `path.cwd` in the configuration will
  produce the original working directory instead of the overridden working
  directory. Use `path.root` to get the root module directory.

## Shell Tab-completion

If you use either `bash` or `zsh` as your command shell, Terraform can provide
tab-completion support for all command names and (at this time) _some_ command
arguments.

To add the necessary commands to your shell profile, run the following command:

```bash
terraform -install-autocomplete
```

After installation, it is necessary to restart your shell or to re-read its
profile script before completion will be activated.

To uninstall the completion hook, assuming that it has not been modified
manually in the shell profile, run the following command:

```bash
terraform -uninstall-autocomplete
```

Currently not all of Terraform's subcommands have full tab-completion support
for all arguments. We plan to improve tab-completion coverage over time.

## Upgrade and Security Bulletin Checks

The Terraform CLI commands interact with the HashiCorp service
[Checkpoint](https://checkpoint.hashicorp.com/) to check for the availability
of new versions and for critical security bulletins about the current version.

One place where the effect of this can be seen is in `terraform version`, where
it is used by default to indicate in the output when a newer version is
available.

Only anonymous information, which cannot be used to identify the user or host,
is sent to Checkpoint. An anonymous ID is sent which helps de-duplicate warning
messages. Both the anonymous id and the use of checkpoint itself are completely
optional and can be disabled.

Checkpoint itself can be entirely disabled for all HashiCorp products by
setting the environment variable `CHECKPOINT_DISABLE` to any non-empty value.

Alternatively, settings in
[the CLI configuration file](/cli/config/config-file) can be used to
disable checkpoint features. The following checkpoint-related settings are
supported in this file:

* `disable_checkpoint` - set to `true` to disable checkpoint calls
  entirely. This is similar to the `CHECKPOINT_DISABLE` environment variable
  described above.

* `disable_checkpoint_signature` - set to `true` to disable the use of an
  anonymous signature in checkpoint requests. This allows Terraform to check
  for security bulletins but does not send the anonymous signature in these
  requests.

[The Checkpoint client code](https://github.com/hashicorp/go-checkpoint) used
by Terraform is available for review by any interested party.