Terraform variable file
A Terraform variable file is a configuration file that assigns values to input variables for a Terraform configuration.
Effective Platform Engineering
A Terraform variable file is a configuration file that assigns values to input variables for a Terraform configuration.
- How it is used
- Supplies Terraform plan jobs with configuration values, including values generated during pipeline execution.
- How deep it goes
- Shows command-level integration and runtime generation, without detailing variable-file syntax or Terraform evaluation internals.
- Examples
- Uses a computed local varfile created after checkout and passed to terraform plan through a reusable job parameter.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via a reusable CircleCI Terraform plan job that accepts static or runtime-generated variable files.
Read how Effective Platform Engineering explains Terraform variable file →
Terraform in Depth: Infrastructure as Code with Terraform and OpenTofu
A tfvars file is a Terraform variable-definition file containing values that can be loaded into a configuration.
- How it is used
- Separates environment-specific root-module inputs from configuration and supplies them consistently to plans and automated deployments.
- How deep it goes
- Defines HCL and JSON formats, naming conventions, loading flags, and security implications without detailing Terraform evaluation internals.
- Examples
- Uses production.tfvars commands plus HCL and JSON assignments for VPC identifiers and instance counts.
- What you can do after
- Operate Terraform plans with repeatable environment values by selecting files explicitly or through automatic loading conventions.
Related concepts
- inputuses · An input is a value, information, or signal supplied to a system, computation, or interface for processing or to influence its behavior.
- JSONalternative to · JSON is a standardized, language-independent text format for representing structured data using objects, arrays, strings, numbers, Boolean values, and null.
- versioninguses · The practice of identifying and managing successive revisions of files, data, models, interfaces, or other artifacts so changes can be tracked and earlier states recovered.
- sensitivitycontrasts with · Sensitivity is a property of a Terraform value that controls whether its contents are treated as sensitive.
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