Terraform Tutorial · Terraform Basics · Lesson 7 of 25

Terraform Outputs

Outputs expose values from a configuration: to the command line, to scripts, and to other configurations and modules.

Declaring outputs

Outputs, including a sensitive one

locals {
  servers = ["web-1", "web-2", "web-3"]
}

output "server_count" {
  description = "How many servers we run"
  value       = length(local.servers)
}

output "first_server" {
  value = local.servers[0]
}

output "api_token" {
  value     = "s3cr3t-token"
  sensitive = true
}

Output

api_token = <sensitive>
first_server = "web-1"
server_count = 3

Run this on your computer — see “Get Started” for setup.

After terraform apply, read them with terraform output or, for scripts, terraform output -json or terraform output -raw db_endpoint.

Typical outputs

output "load_balancer_dns" {
  description = "Public address of the app"
  value       = aws_lb.app.dns_name
}

output "db_password" {
  value     = random_password.db.result
  sensitive = true    # shown as (sensitive value)
}

In a module, outputs are the module's return values: the caller reads them as module.network.vpc_id.

Test yourself

How does a script read a single output value without quotes?

terraform show NAME
terraform output -raw NAME
terraform state NAME
terraform get NAME

Show answer

Answer: terraform output -raw NAME