Request standardization for terraform destroy and apply arguments

[unacceptable]

Terraform Version

14:06 MacOS: Terraform/ $ terraform --version
Terraform v0.11.3
+ provider.aws v1.6.0
+ provider.null v1.0.0

14:06 MacOS: Terraform/ $

Terraform Configuration Files

This is not applicable

Debug Output

This is not applicable

Crash Output

This is not applicable

Expected Behavior

It would be nice if -y was aliased for -force for terraform destroy and -auto-approve for terraform apply

Actual Behavior

14:05 MacOS: Terraform/ $ terraform apply -y
flag provided but not defined: -y
Usage: terraform apply [options] [DIR-OR-PLAN]

  Builds or changes infrastructure according to Terraform configuration
  files in DIR.

  By default, apply scans the current directory for the configuration
  and applies the changes appropriately. However, a path to another
  configuration or an execution plan can be provided. Execution plans can be
  used to only execute a pre-determined set of actions.

Options:
... (removed for readability)
14:06 MacOS: Terraform/ $ 

Steps to Reproduce

terraform apply -y
or
terraform destroy -y

Additional Context

I think that this would help developers in Staging and Development environments that can be stood up and torn down multiple times.

[unacceptable]

This is not so much an issue as it is a feature request. Sorry if I put this in the wrong place.

[apparentlymart]

Hi @ScriptMyJob! Thanks for this feature request.

Over in #17218 there is a change to make -auto-approve work on both terraform apply and terraform destroy.

We intentionally chose a very explicit name for this option because it's a dangerous option that should generally be used only in automation scenarios (where length of typing is not an issue). We don't want to have a single-character flag for something this dangerous.

The recommended workflow for interactive use is to type yes at the interactive prompt. I understand that this can be inconvenient if you are very rapidly creating an destroying a low-value environment, but Terraform's primary workflow designed with the common case of a high-value environment in mind.

If you have a codebase that has a workflow of frequent creating and destroy, I'd suggest optimizing that specific workflow with a codebase-specific wrapper script (or Makefile, etc) that includes the -auto-approve option. By including it in the relevant codebase you'd ensure that it can't be accidentally applied to a higher-value environment.

The current inconsistency between -force and -auto-approve will be addressed once #17218 is merged. I hope my rationale here for not implementing -y makes sense. Since we already have that PR open, I'm going to close this just to consolidate. Thanks again for opening this.

[ghost]

I'm going to lock this issue because it has been closed for 30 days ⏳. This helps our maintainers find and focus on the active issues.

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