Which of the following statements describes the behavior of Terraform when managing infrastructure?

The behavior of Terraform in managing infrastructure is accurately captured by the assertion that it does not track changes made outside of Terraform until the next plan or apply is executed. When Terraform manages infrastructure, it maintains a state file that reflects the current configuration of the managed resources. If changes are made directly to the infrastructure outside of Terraform (such as through the cloud provider's console), those alterations are not immediately recognized by Terraform.

During the next execution of a terraform plan or terraform apply, Terraform will then compare the actual infrastructure against the state file to identify discrepancies. This allows Terraform to reflect any changes that have occurred outside of its purview during the next operations, enabling users to see what is different and manage those changes accordingly.

The other options do not align with Terraform's behavior: locking the state file after every change is not how Terraform works, as it only locks the state during critical operations; allowing manual changes without tracking is counter to the principles of infrastructure as code; and automatic state file updates after external changes would undermine Terraform’s purpose of tracking and applying infrastructure as defined in its configuration files.