How to fix Error: line endings have changed from CRLF to LF in Terraform

Run this command to set git to handle line endings automatically:

On Windows:

git config --global core.autocrlf true

On Linux/Mac:

git config --global core.autocrlf input

This tells git to convert CRLF to LF when committing (ensuring the repository always has LF) and automatically convert LF to the system default when checking out.

Create a .gitattributes file in your repository root and add:

* text=auto eol=lf
*.tf text eol=lf
*.tfvars text eol=lf
*.sh text eol=lf
*.bat text eol=crlf

This ensures all Terraform files always use LF line endings regardless of the developer's OS or git settings. The .gitattributes file takes precedence over individual git configs.

If your repository already has mixed line endings, renormalize all files after setting .gitattributes:

git add --renormalize .
git commit -m "Normalize line endings to LF"

This converts all existing files in the repository to use the line endings specified in .gitattributes.

For individual files already showing the error, convert them manually:

Using dos2unix (Linux/Mac):

dos2unix *.tf

Using sed (Unix/Linux):

sed -i 's/\r$//' *.tf

Using PowerShell (Windows):

(Get-Content file.tf) -replace "`r`n", "`n" | Set-Content file.tf -NoNewline

Using VSCode:
Open the file, look at the status bar (bottom right), click "CRLF" and change to "LF", then save.

Run terraform fmt to ensure it doesn't change line endings:

terraform fmt -check

If this passes without changes, your line endings are now consistent. If it reports changes, verify your editor is set to use LF endings:

In VSCode:
1. Open settings (Ctrl + ,)
2. Search for "End of Line"
3. Set "Files: Eol" to \n
4. Restart VSCode or reload the window

After fixing line endings, the phantom changes should disappear. Verify with:

terraform plan

If terraform plan still shows changes to files you haven't touched, you may need to:

1. Stage all files: git add .
2. Run: terraform refresh to resync state
3. Re-run: terraform plan

If the issue persists, check that all files have been converted to LF using: git diff --cached | grep -E '^[+-]' | head -20