--- layout: "docs" page_title: "Basic CLI Features" sidebar_current: "docs-commands" description: "An introduction to the terraform command and its available subcommands." --- # Basic CLI Features > **Hands-on:** Try the [Terraform: Get Started](https://learn.hashicorp.com/collections/terraform/aws-get-started?utm_source=WEBSITE&utm_medium=WEB_IO&utm_offer=ARTICLE_PAGE&utm_content=DOCS) collection on HashiCorp Learn. 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](/docs/cloud/) or the various [Terraform providers](/docs/language/providers/index.html), 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] [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: add Generate a resource configuration template 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](/docs/cli/config/config-file.html) 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](/docs/cli/config/config-file.html) 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.