Demo OpenTofu State Commands

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll master OpenTofu state commands to manage your Terraform state file. We’ll cover how to:

• List resources in state
• Inspect resource attributes
• Retrieve specific IDs
• Remove resources from state
• Work with a remote S3 backend
• Rename resources in both configuration and state

Table of State Commands

1. Inspecting State Resource Names

First, navigate to your project directory and list the tracked resources:

cd ~/opentofu-projects/project-anime/
tofu state list

You should see output similar to:

local_file.classics
local_file.hall_of_fame
local_file.new_shows
local_file.top10

These correspond to the resource blocks in main.tf:

resource "local_file" "top10" {
  filename = "/root/anime/top10.txt"
  content  = "1. Naruto\n2. DragonBallZ\n3. Death Note\n"
}

resource "local_file" "hall_of_fame" {
  filename = "/root/anime/hall-of-fame.txt"
  content  = "1. Attack On Titan\n2. Naruto\n3. Bleach\n"
}

resource "local_file" "new_shows" {
  filename = "/root/anime/new_shows.txt"
  content  = "1. Cannon Busters\n2. Last Hope\n3. Lost Song\n"
}

resource "local_file" "classics" {
  filename = "/root/anime/classic_shows.txt"
  content  = "1. DragonBall\n"
}

Any resource not listed (e.g., super_pets) is not managed in the current state.

2. Showing Resource Attributes

To view every attribute stored for a single resource, run:

tofu state show local_file.classics

Example output:

# local_file.classics:
resource "local_file" "classics" {
  content               = "<<EOT\n1. DragonBall\nEOT"
  content_base64sha256  = "61ybEEB9hy2PJuJ30dyB1jDrngh76EV9R9KSA4="
  content_base64sha512  = "lKrYdMr2TokTZk1xL17LfPlLxUld8Z7uGL4vFq/Ko1Bq0yJ6w="
  content_md5           = "content_md5"
  content_sha1          = "content_sha1"
  content_sha256        = "content_sha256"
  content_sha512        = "content_sha512"
  directory_permission  = "755"
  file_permission       = "644"
  filename              = "/root/anime/classic_shows.txt"
  id                    = "8ac5abf90e9a20aa8e3b49f248d568f2367b2"
}

3. Retrieving the ID of a Resource

If you need a resource’s unique identifier (e.g., to reference it elsewhere), use:

tofu state show local_file.top10

Look for the id = line. It might appear as:

id = "961e7f431c2b8a09f1b2d3a4e5b6c7d8e9f0a1b2"

4. Removing a Resource from State

To stop managing a resource without destroying it, remove its block from main.tf and then:

tofu state rm local_file.hall_of_fame

Sample session:

$ tofu state rm local_file.hall_of_fame
Removed local_file.hall_of_fame
Successfully removed 1 resource instance(s).

Verify removal:

tofu state list

5. Working with Remote State (S3 Backend)

In /root/OpenTofu/project/super-pets/, configure an S3 backend in tofu.tf:

terraform {
  backend "s3" {
    bucket = "my-remote-state"
    key    = "super-pets/terraform.tfstate"
    region = "us-east-1"
  }
}

Define two random_pet resources in main.tf:

resource "random_pet" "super_pet_1" {
  length    = var.length1
  prefix    = var.prefix1
  separator = "-"
}

resource "random_pet" "super_pet_2" {
  length    = var.length2
  prefix    = var.prefix2
  separator = "-"
}

And variables:

variable "length1" { default = 1 }
variable "length2" { default = 2 }
variable "prefix1" { default = "Super" }
variable "prefix2" { default = "Wonder" }

Since the state is stored remotely, all tofu state commands will interact with S3.

To confirm:

tofu state show random_pet.super_pet_1

Output:

# random_pet.super_pet_1:
id        = "Super-grackle"
length    = 1
prefix    = "Super"
separator = "-"

6. Finding the ID of super_pet_2

Similarly, retrieve the ID for the second pet:

tofu state show random_pet.super_pet_2

Example:

# random_pet.super_pet_2:
id        = "Wonder-super-pup"
length    = 2
prefix    = "Wonder"
separator = "-"

7. Renaming a Resource in Config and State

To rename random_pet.super_pet_1 to random_pet.ultra_pet:

1. Update main.tf:

   resource "random_pet" "ultra_pet" {
     length    = var.length1
     prefix    = var.prefix1
     separator = "-"
   }
   
   resource "random_pet" "super_pet_2" {
     length    = var.length2
     prefix    = var.prefix2
     separator = "-"
   }
   

2. Move it in the state:

   tofu state mv random_pet.super_pet_1 random_pet.ultra_pet
   

3. Verify:

   tofu state list
   # Outputs: random_pet.ultra_pet, random_pet.super_pet_2
   

Thank you for following this tutorial on OpenTofu state management!

Links and References

• OpenTofu Documentation
• Terraform State Management
• AWS S3 Backend