Enabling trace-level logs in Terraform CLI, Cloud or Enterprise

Adedayo Samuel

July 28, 2023 20:55
Updated

To capture a trace log, set the environment variable TF_LOG to TRACE. Refer to the steps below for details in your Terraform product:

Terraform Cloud or Enterprise

In Terraform Cloud or Terraform Enterprise, perform these steps in your Workspace:

Navigate to Settings > General > User Interface, and select "Console UI"
Navigate to Variables > Workspace Variables, and add a new variable with "Environment" as category, TF_LOG as key, and TRACE as value
Start a new run
Click on "View raw log"

Once you are done debugging, you can simply delete the variable from the Terraform Cloud or Terraform Enterprise UI.

Unix/Linux & macOS

In your Linux/macOS terminal, run the following commands:

Set the TF_LOG environment variable:
```
export TF_LOG="TRACE"
```
Run the Terraform operation that you wish to debug, e.g., init, plan, apply, or import. Make sure you capture stdout and stderr with 2>&1, and disable ANSI color escape sequences with -no-color:
```
terraform plan -no-color 2>&1 | tee plan.log
```

Once you are done debugging, remove the variable by running: unset TF_LOG

Windows

In your PowerShell terminal, run the following commands:

Set the TF_LOG environment variable:
```
$Env:TF_LOG="TRACE"
```
Run the Terraform operation that you wish to debug, e.g., init, plan, apply, or import. Make sure you capture stdout and stderr with 2>&1, and disable ANSI color escape sequences with -no-color:
```
terraform plan -no-color 2>&1 | Tee-Object -FilePath plan.log
```

Once you are done debugging, remove the variable by running: $Env:TF_LOG=""

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