What does the file() function do in Terraform?

• A. Returns the file path
• B. Reads binary
• C. Writes to file
• D. Reads file contents as a string

Answer: (D)

The file() function reads the contents of a local file and returns them as a string. You provide the path to the file, and Terraform loads the text and makes it available as a string value that you can interpolate into other configuration arguments, such as user_data, templates, or locals. This is why it’s the right choice for scenarios where you want to inject the actual text contents of a file into your Terraform configuration.

It does not return the file path, it does not read binary in a special way, and it does not write to a file. If you need the raw bytes or a base64-encoded version of the file, you would use filebase64() instead.