What does the term "Partial configuration" refer to in Terraform?

The term "Partial configuration" in Terraform refers to the practice of omitting some details in the configuration which can be specified or provided later, allowing for a more flexible and iterative development process. This approach is useful in scenarios where certain aspects of infrastructure are not yet fully defined or where they might change based on evolving requirements.

Using partial configurations can facilitate a modular approach to infrastructure provisioning. For example, a user could create a resource with some essential arguments initially and plan to configure additional properties later as more information becomes available or as the project's scope evolves. This capability allows teams to begin building infrastructure quickly without needing to commit to all details upfront, supporting an agile methodology.

This contrasts with providing all necessary details for provisioning, which would result in a complete configuration from the start, and not using any configuration files at all, which would imply a lack of formalized infrastructure as code practices. It does not involve solely relying on default settings without customization, as that would imply little to no configuration at all rather than a partial one.