Command: state rm

The terraform state rm command is used to remove items from the Terraform state. This command can remove single resources, single instances of a resource, entire modules, and more.

Usage

Usage: terraform state rm [options] ADDRESS...

Remove one or more items from the Terraform state.

Items removed from the Terraform state are not physically destroyed. Items removed from the Terraform state are only no longer managed by Terraform. For example, if you remove an AWS instance from the state, the AWS instance will continue running, but terraform plan will no longer see that instance.

There are various use cases for removing items from a Terraform state file. The most common is refactoring a configuration to no longer manage that resource (perhaps moving it to another Terraform configuration/state).

The state will only be saved on successful removal of all addresses. If any specific address errors for any reason (such as a syntax error), the state will not be modified at all.

This command will output a backup copy of the state prior to saving any changes. The backup cannot be disabled. Due to the destructive nature of this command, backups are required.

This command requires one or more addresses that point to a resources in the state. Addresses are in resource addressing format.

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

• -backup=path - Path where Terraform should write the backup state. This can't be disabled. If not set, Terraform will write it to the same path as the statefile with a backup extension.

• -state=path - Path to a Terraform state file to use to look up Terraform-managed resources. By default it will use the configured backend, or the default "terraform.tfstate" if it exists.

Example: Remove a Resource

The example below removes a single resource in a module:

$ terraform state rm module.foo.packet_device.worker[0]

Example: Remove a Module

The example below removes an entire module:

$ terraform state rm module.foo