| --- |
| page_title: 'Command: state' |
| description: The `terraform state` command is used for advanced state management. |
| --- |
| |
| # State Command |
| |
| The `terraform state` command is used for advanced state management. |
| As your Terraform usage becomes more advanced, there are some cases where |
| you may need to modify the [Terraform state](/terraform/language/state). |
| Rather than modify the state directly, the `terraform state` commands can |
| be used in many cases instead. |
| |
| This command is a nested subcommand, meaning that it has further subcommands. |
| These subcommands are listed to the left. |
| |
| ## Usage |
| |
| Usage: `terraform state <subcommand> [options] [args]` |
| |
| Please click a subcommand to the left for more information. |
| |
| ## Remote State |
| |
| The Terraform state subcommands all work with remote state just as if it |
| was local state. Reads and writes may take longer than normal as each read |
| and each write do a full network roundtrip. Otherwise, backups are still |
| written to disk and the CLI usage is the same as if it were local state. |
| |
| ## Backups |
| |
| All `terraform state` subcommands that modify the state write backup |
| files. The path of these backup file can be controlled with `-backup`. |
| |
| Subcommands that are read-only (such as [list](/terraform/cli/commands/state/list)) |
| do not write any backup files since they aren't modifying the state. |
| |
| Note that backups for state modification _can not be disabled_. Due to |
| the sensitivity of the state file, Terraform forces every state modification |
| command to write a backup file. You'll have to remove these files manually |
| if you don't want to keep them around. |
| |
| ## Command-Line Friendly |
| |
| The output and command-line structure of the state subcommands is |
| designed to be usable with Unix command-line tools such as grep, awk, |
| and similar PowerShell commands. |
| |
| For advanced filtering and modification, we recommend piping Terraform |
| state subcommands together with other command line tools. |