What is Terraform State?
Terraform's record of the real-world resources it manages, stored as JSON.
Terraform State is a JSON file that maps Terraform resource definitions to real-world infrastructure objects. Terraform uses state to determine what changes need to be made during a plan/apply. For teams, state must be stored in a shared remote backend (S3 + DynamoDB for locking) to prevent conflicts. State can contain sensitive data (passwords, private keys) — encrypt it at rest. Never manually edit state; use 'terraform state' commands or 'terraform import'.
Deep Dive Guide
terraform remote state s3 dynamodb
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