terraform/website/docs/cli/commands/untaint.html.md

---
layout: "docs"
page_title: "Command: untaint"
sidebar_current: "docs-commands-untaint"
description: |-
  The `terraform untaint` command manually unmarks a Terraform-managed resource as tainted, restoring it as the primary instance in the state.
---

# Command: untaint

The `terraform untaint` command manually unmarks a Terraform-managed resource
as tainted, restoring it as the primary instance in the state. This reverses
either a manual `terraform taint` or the result of provisioners failing on a
resource.

This command _will not_ modify infrastructure, but does modify the state file
in order to unmark a resource as tainted.

~> **NOTE on Tainted Indexes:** In certain edge cases, more than one tainted
instance can be present for a single resource. When this happens, you need to specify the index after the resources, e.g. `my-resource-example[2]`. You can use the `terraform show` command to inspect the state and
determine which index holds the instance you'd like to restore. In the vast
majority of cases, there will only be one tainted instance, and the `-index`
flag can be omitted.

## Usage

Usage: `terraform untaint [options] name`

The `name` argument is the name of the resource to mark as untainted.  The
format of this argument is `TYPE.NAME`, such as `aws_instance.foo`.

The command-line flags are all optional (with the exception of `-index` in
certain cases, see above note). The list of available flags are:

* `-allow-missing` - If specified, the command will succeed (exit code 0)
    even if the resource is missing. The command can still error, but only
    in critically erroneous cases.

* `-backup=path` - Path to the backup file. Defaults to `-state-out` with
  the ".backup" extension. Disabled by setting to "-".

* `-lock=true` - Lock the state file when locking is supported.

* `-lock-timeout=0s` - Duration to retry a state lock.

* `-no-color` - Disables output with coloring

* `-state=path` - Path to read and write the state file to. Defaults to "terraform.tfstate".
  Ignored when [remote state](/docs/language/state/remote.html) is used.

* `-state-out=path` - Path to write updated state file. By default, the
  `-state` path will be used. Ignored when
  [remote state](/docs/language/state/remote.html) is used.

* `-ignore-remote-version` - When using the enhanced remote backend with
  Terraform Cloud, continue even if remote and local Terraform versions differ.
  This may result in an unusable Terraform Cloud workspace, and should be used
  with extreme caution.