terraform/website/docs/commands/init.html.markdown

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docs	Command: init	docs-commands-init	The `terraform init` command is used to initialize a Terraform configuration. This is the first command that should be run for any new or existing Terraform configuration. It is safe to run this command multiple times.

Command: init

The terraform init command is used to initialize a working directory containing Terraform configuration files. This is the first command that should be run after writing a new Terraform configuration or cloning an existing one from version control. It is safe to run this command multiple times.

Usage

Usage: terraform init [options] [DIR]

Initialize a new or existing Terraform working directory by creating initial files, loading any remote state, downloading modules, etc.

This is the first command that should be run for any new or existing Terraform configuration per machine. This sets up all the local data necessary to run Terraform that is typically not committed to version control.

This command is always safe to run multiple times. Though subsequent runs may give errors, this command will never delete your configuration or state. Even so, if you have important information, please back it up prior to running this command, just in case.

If no arguments are given, the configuration in this working directory is initialized.

The command-line flags are all optional. The list of available flags are:

• -backend=true - Initialize the backend for this configuration.

• -backend-config=path This can be either a path to an HCL file with key/value assignments (same format as terraform.tfvars) or a 'key=value' format. This is merged with what is in the configuration file. This can be specified multiple times. The backend type must be in the configuration itself.

• -force-copy Suppress prompts about copying state data. This is equivalent to providing a "yes" to all confirmation prompts.

• -get=true Download any modules for this configuration.

• -get-plugins=true Download any missing plugins for this configuration.

• -input=true Ask for input if necessary. If false, will error if input was required.

• -lock=true Lock the state file when locking is supported.

• -lock-timeout=0s Duration to retry a state lock.

• -no-color If specified, output won't contain any color.

• -plugin-dir Directory containing plugin binaries. This overrides all default search paths for plugins, and prevents the automatic installation of plugins. This flag can be used multiple times.

• -reconfigure Reconfigure the backend, ignoring any saved configuration.

• -upgrade=false If installing modules (-get) or plugins (-get-plugins), ignore previously-downloaded objects and install the latest version allowed within configured constraints.

• -verify-plugins=true Verify the authenticity and integrity of automatically downloaded plugins.

Backend Config

The -backend-config can take a path or key=value pair to specify additional backend configuration when initializing a backend.

This is particularly useful for partial configuration of backends. Partial configuration lets you keep sensitive information out of your Terraform configuration.

For path values, the backend configuration file is a basic HCL file with key/value pairs. The keys are configuration keys for your backend. You do not need to wrap it in a terraform block. For example, the following file is a valid backend configuration file for the Consul backend type:

address = "demo.consul.io"
path    = "newpath"

If the value contains an equal sign (=), it is parsed as a key=value pair. The format of this flag is identical to the -var flag for plan, apply, etc. but applies to configuration keys for backends. For example:

$ terraform init \
  -backend-config 'address=demo.consul.io' \
  -backend-config 'path=newpath'

These two formats can be mixed. In this case, the values will be merged by key with keys specified later in the command-line overriding conflicting keys specified earlier.