terraform/website/source/docs/provisioners/local-exec.html.markdown

---
layout: "docs"
page_title: "Provisioner: local-exec"
sidebar_current: "docs-provisioners-local"
description: |-
  The `local-exec` provisioner invokes a local executable after a resource is created. This invokes a process on the machine running Terraform, not on the resource. See the `remote-exec` provisioner to run commands on the resource.
---

# local-exec Provisioner

The `local-exec` provisioner invokes a local executable after a resource
is created. This invokes a process on the machine running Terraform, not on
the resource. See the `remote-exec` [provisioner](/docs/provisioners/remote-exec.html)
to run commands on the resource.

Note that even though the resource will be ifully created when the provisioner is run,
there is no guarantee that it will be in an operable state - for example system services
such as `sshd` may not be started yet on compute resources.

## Example usage

```
# Join the newly created machine to our Consul cluster
resource "aws_instance" "web" {
    ...
    provisioner "local-exec" {
        command = "echo ${aws_instance.web.private_ip} >> private_ips.txt"
    }
}
```

## Argument Reference

The following arguments are supported:

* `command` - (Required) This is the command to execute. It can be provided
  as a relative path to the current working directory or as an absolute path.
  It is evaluated in a shell, and can use environment variables or Terraform
  variables.