Command: state push

The terraform state push command is used to manually upload a local state file to remote state. This command also works with local state.

This command should rarely be used. It is meant only as a utility in case manual intervention is necessary with the remote state.

Usage

Usage: terraform state push [options] PATH

This command pushes the state specified by PATH to the currently configured backend.

If PATH is "-" then the state data to push is read from stdin. This data is loaded completely into memory and verified prior to being written to the destination state.

Note: Terraform state files must be in UTF-8 format without a byte order mark (BOM). For PowerShell on Windows, use Set-Content to automatically encode files in UTF-8 format. For example, run terraform state push | sc terraform.tfstate.

Terraform will perform a number of safety checks to prevent you from making changes that appear to be unsafe:

Differing lineage: If the "lineage" value in the state differs, Terraform will not allow you to push the state. A differing lineage suggests that the states are completely different and you may lose data.
Higher remote serial: If the "serial" value in the destination state is higher than the state being pushed, Terraform will prevent the push. A higher serial suggests that data is in the destination state that isn't accounted for in the local state being pushed.

Both of these safety checks can be disabled with the -force flag. This is not recommended. If you disable the safety checks and are pushing state, the destination state will be overwritten.

For configurations using the Terraform Cloud CLI integration or the remote backend only, terraform state push also accepts the option -ignore-remote-version.