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opentf/website/docs/cli/commands/refresh.html.md
Martin Atkins 6f35c2847b command: Reorganize docs of the local backend's legacy CLI options
We have these funny extra options that date back to before Terraform even
had remote state, which we've preserved along the way by most recently
incorporating them as special-case overrides for the local backend.

The documentation we had for these has grown less accurate over time as
the details have shifted, and was in many cases missing the requisite
caveats that they are only for the local backend and that backend
configuration is the modern, preferred way to deal with the use-cases they
were intended for.

We always have a bit of a tension with this sort of legacy option because
we want to keep them documented just enough to be useful to someone who
finds an existing script/etc using them and wants to know what they do,
but not to take up so much space that they might distract users from
finding the modern alternative they should consider instead.

As a compromise in that vein here I've created a new section about these
options under the local backend documentation, which then gives us the
space to go into some detail about the various behaviors and interactions
and also to discuss their history and our recommended alternatives. I then
simplified all of the other mentions of these in command documentation
to just link to or refer to the local backend documentation. My hope then
is that folks who need to know what these do can still find the docs, but
that information can be kept out of the direct path of new users so they
can focus on learning about remote backends instead.

This is certainly not the most ideal thing ever, but it seemed like the
best compromise between the competing priorities I described above.
2021-03-25 13:56:48 -07:00

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Markdown

---
layout: "docs"
page_title: "Command: refresh"
sidebar_current: "docs-commands-refresh"
description: |-
The `terraform refresh` command is used to reconcile the state Terraform knows about (via its state file) with the real-world infrastructure. This can be used to detect any drift from the last-known state, and to update the state file.
---
# Command: refresh
The `terraform refresh` command is used to reconcile the state Terraform
knows about (via its state file) with the real-world infrastructure.
This can be used to detect any drift from the last-known state, and to
update the state file.
This does not modify infrastructure, but does modify the state file.
If the state is changed, this may cause changes to occur during the next
plan or apply.
## Usage
Usage: `terraform refresh [options]`
The `terraform refresh` command accepts the following options:
* `-compact-warnings` - If Terraform produces any warnings that are not
accompanied by errors, show them in a more compact form that includes only
the summary messages.
* `-input=true` - Ask for input for variables if not directly set.
* `-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.
* `-parallelism=n` - Limit the number of concurrent operation as Terraform
[walks the graph](/docs/internals/graph.html#walking-the-graph). Defaults
to 10.
* `-target=resource` - A [Resource
Address](/docs/cli/state/resource-addressing.html) to target. Operation will
be limited to this resource and its dependencies. This flag can be used
multiple times.
* `-var 'foo=bar'` - Set a variable in the Terraform configuration. This flag
can be set multiple times. Variable values are interpreted as
[literal expressions](/docs/language/expressions/types.html) in the
Terraform language, so list and map values can be specified via this flag.
* `-var-file=foo` - Set variables in the Terraform configuration from
a [variable file](/docs/language/values/variables.html#variable-definitions-tfvars-files). If
a `terraform.tfvars` or any `.auto.tfvars` files are present in the current
directory, they will be automatically loaded. `terraform.tfvars` is loaded
first and the `.auto.tfvars` files after in alphabetical order. Any files
specified by `-var-file` override any values set automatically from files in
the working directory. This flag can be used multiple times.
For configurations using
[the `local` backend](/docs/language/settings/backends/local.html) only,
`terraform refresh` also accepts the legacy options
[`-state`, `-state-out`, and `-backup`](/docs/language/settings/backends/local.html#command-line-arguments).