computer science

Terraform (software)

Terraform (software) is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Terraform (software) rather than just read about it. In short: Terraform is an infrastructure-as-code software tool created by HashiCorp. Users define and provide data center infrastructure using a declarative configuration language known as HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), or optionally JSON.

Key takeaways

Terraform (software) belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Terraform (software) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Terraform (software) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Terraform is an infrastructure-as-code software tool created by HashiCorp. Users define and provide data center infrastructure using a declarative configuration language known as HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), or optionally JSON.

History Terraform was launched by HashiCorp in 2014. HashiCorp launched the Terraform Module Registry in 2017. In 2019, the paid version Terraform Enterprise was introduced. In September 2021, HashiCorp announced it would be temporarily pausing its review of community-submitted pull requests for Terraform, citing low staffing in its Terraform Core team. On August 10, 2023, HashiCorp announced that all products produced by the company would be relicensed under the Business Source License (BUSL), with HashiCorp prohibiting commercial use of the community edition by those who offer "competitive services". Terraform was previously free software available under version 2.0 of the Mozilla Public License (MPL). Joe Duffy, founder and CEO of Pulumi, criticized the announcement as "disingenuous" and said, "We tried many times to contribute upstream fixes to Terraform providers, but HashiCorp would never accept them. So we've had to maintain forks." In August 2023, due to Terraform's relicensing, the fork OpenTF was created under the MPL. OpenTF was later renamed to OpenTofu and placed under The Linux Foundation.

Features Terraform manages external resources (such as public cloud infrastructure, private cloud infrastructure, network appliances, software as a service, and platform as a service) with "providers". HashiCorp maintains an extensive list of official providers, and can also integrate with community-developed providers. Users can interact with Terraform providers by declaring resources or by calling data sources. Rather than using imperative commands to provision resources, Terraform uses declarative configuration to describe the desired final state. Once a user invokes Terraform on a given resource, Terraform will perform CRUD actions on the user's behalf to accomplish the desired state. The infrastructure as code can be written as modules, promoting reusability and maintainability. Terraform supports a number of cloud infrastructure providers such as Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Serverspace, Selectel Google Cloud Platform, Linode, DigitalOcean, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Yandex.Cloud, VMware vSphere, and OpenStack. It can be configured to make use of multiple cloud platforms.

Usage As of 2019, Terraform is used by companies such as Barclays, Capital One, and GM Cruise.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Terraform (software)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Terraform (software) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Terraform (software) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Terraform (software) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Terraform (software)

In research: Terraform (software) appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Terraform (software) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Terraform (software) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cloud infrastructure, Cross-platform software, Orchestration software, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Terraform (software) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Terraform (software) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Terraform (software) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Terraform (software) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Terraform (software) in simple terms?

Why does Terraform (software) matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Terraform (software)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Terraform (software).