| --- |
| page_title: 'Command: destroy' |
| description: >- |
| The terraform destroy command destroys all objects managed by a Terraform |
| configuration. |
| --- |
| |
| # Command: destroy |
| |
| The `terraform destroy` command is a convenient way to destroy all remote |
| objects managed by a particular Terraform configuration. |
| |
| While you will typically not want to destroy long-lived objects in a production |
| environment, Terraform is sometimes used to manage ephemeral infrastructure |
| for development purposes, in which case you can use `terraform destroy` to |
| conveniently clean up all of those temporary objects once you are finished |
| with your work. |
| |
| ## Usage |
| |
| Usage: `terraform destroy [options]` |
| |
| This command is just a convenience alias for the following command: |
| |
| ``` |
| terraform apply -destroy |
| ``` |
| |
| For that reason, this command accepts most of the options that |
| [`terraform apply`](/cli/commands/apply) accepts, although it does |
| not accept a plan file argument and forces the selection of the "destroy" |
| planning mode. |
| |
| You can also create a speculative destroy plan, to see what the effect of |
| destroying would be, by running the following command: |
| |
| ``` |
| terraform plan -destroy |
| ``` |
| |
| This will run [`terraform plan`](/cli/commands/plan) in _destroy_ mode, showing |
| you the proposed destroy changes without executing them. |
| |
| -> **Note:** The `-destroy` option to `terraform apply` exists only in |
| Terraform v0.15.2 and later. For earlier versions, you _must_ use |
| `terraform destroy` to get the effect of `terraform apply -destroy`. |
