37 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
37 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: "docs"
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page_title: "Load Order and Semantics"
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sidebar_current: "docs-config-load"
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description: |-
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When invoking any command that loads the Terraform configuration, Terraform loads all configuration files within the directory specified in alphabetical order.
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---
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# Load Order and Semantics
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When invoking any command that loads the Terraform configuration,
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Terraform loads all configuration files within the directory
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specified in alphabetical order.
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The files loaded must end in
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either `.tf` or `.tf.json` to specify the format that is in use.
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Otherwise, the files are ignored. Multiple file formats can
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be present in the same directory; it is okay to have one Terraform
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configuration file be Terraform syntax and another be JSON.
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[Override](/docs/configuration/override.html)
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files are the exception, as they're loaded after all non-override
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files, in alphabetical order.
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The configuration within the loaded files are appended to each
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other. This is in contrast to being merged. This means that two
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resources with the same name are not merged, and will instead
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cause a validation error. This is in contrast to
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[overrides](/docs/configuration/override.html),
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which do merge.
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The order of variables, resources, etc. defined within the
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configuration doesn't matter. Terraform configurations are
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[declarative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declarative_programming),
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so references to other resources and variables do not depend
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on the order they're defined.
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