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

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docs	Command: validate	docs-commands-validate	The `terraform validate` command is used to validate the syntax of the terraform files.

Command: validate

The terraform validate command is used to validate the syntax of the terraform files. Terraform performs a syntax check on all the terraform files in the directory, and will display an error if any of the files doesn't validate.

This command does not check formatting (e.g. tabs vs spaces, newlines, comments etc.).

The following can be reported:

• invalid HCL syntax (e.g. missing trailing quote or equal sign)
• invalid HCL references (e.g. variable name or attribute which doesn't exist)
• same provider declared multiple times
• same module declared multiple times
• same resource declared multiple times
• invalid module name
• interpolation used in places where it's unsupported (e.g. variable, depends_on, module.source, provider)
• missing value for a variable (none of -var foo=... flag, -var-file=foo.vars flag, TF_VAR_foo environment variable, terraform.tfvars, or default value in the configuration)

Usage

Usage: terraform validate [options] [dir]

By default, validate requires no flags and looks in the current directory for the configurations.

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

• -check-variables=true - If set to true (default), the command will check whether all required variables have been specified.

• -no-color - Disables output with coloring.

• -var 'foo=bar' - Set a variable in the Terraform configuration. This flag can be set multiple times. Variable values are interpreted as HCL, so list and map values can be specified via this flag.

• -var-file=foo - Set variables in the Terraform configuration from a variable file. If "terraform.tfvars" is present, it will be automatically loaded first. Any files specified by -var-file override any values in a "terraform.tfvars". This flag can be used multiple times.