Where can Terraform load a provider from?

Where can Terraform load a provider from?

• A. Plugins directory
• B. Source code
• C. Official HashiCorp distribution on releases.hashicorp.com
• D. Provider plugin cache

Answer: (D)

Terraform loads provider binaries from its local plugin cache. When you run init, Terraform downloads the needed provider plugins from their sources (such as HashiCorp’s registry) and stores them in the plugin cache on your machine. On subsequent runs, Terraform loads those providers directly from that cache, which speeds things up and supports offline use. The official distribution on releases.hashicorp.com is where the binaries originate, but Terraform doesn’t load directly from that URL at runtime—it pulls them into the cache first. A plugins directory is a legacy location in older versions, whereas the plugin cache is the standard runtime location.

Terraform loads provider binaries from its local plugin cache. When you run init, Terraform downloads the needed provider plugins from their sources (such as HashiCorp’s registry) and stores them in the plugin cache on your machine. On subsequent runs, Terraform loads those providers directly from that cache, which speeds things up and supports offline use. The official distribution on releases.hashicorp.com is where the binaries originate, but Terraform doesn’t load directly from that URL at runtime—it pulls them into the cache first. A plugins directory is a legacy location in older versions, whereas the plugin cache is the standard runtime location.