Develop new Terraform module resources using targets

A feature of the Terraform CLI is the ability to apply or destroy or plan a specific resource within your module. For example, take an example set of operations in a module like:

resource "null_resource" "file1" {
    environment = {
       resource = "file1"
    }
    provisioner "local-exec" {
       command = "echo $(date) ${resource} | tee -a dates.log"
    }
}

resource "null_resource" "file2" {
    environment = {
       resource = "file2"
    }
    provisioner "local-exec" {
       command = "echo $(date) ${resource} | tee -a dates.log"
    }
}

This would just apply as echoing two dates and the name of the resource, some number of seconds apart into the log. However, let's assume these must become discrete steps; for example, maybe null_resource.file2 only needs to be applied a second time as a check on a running environment, but none of the other steps in the plan do. You can use -target to operate only on null_resource.file2 using this format, which works for any resource type:

terraform {plan,apply,destroy} -target=${resource_type}.${resource_name}

so to plan for null_resource named file2:

terraform plan -target=null_resource.file2

This feature is commonly used for operations like modifying an instance of a module (-target=module.name.resource.name) or applying partial changes to a subset of interdependent resources in your plan (for example, if you create a new volume, or import one not managed by Terraform, you can update a resource for a VM to attach that volume, and then apply the resource for the volume, then the VM resource using this method), but it's also helpful for developing modules:

Using this feature of the Terraform CLI, you can partially execute your plan as you add or remove resources-- this can save you time in extending your module's plans.