---
layout: "docs"
page_title: "Command: taint"
sidebar_current: "docs-commands-taint"
description: |-
  The `terraform taint` command manually marks a Terraform-managed resource as tainted, forcing it to be destroyed and recreated on the next apply.
---

# Command: taint

The `terraform taint` command manually marks a Terraform-managed resource
as tainted, forcing it to be destroyed and recreated on the next apply.

This command _will not_ modify infrastructure, but does modify the
state file in order to mark a resource as tainted. Once a resource is
marked as tainted, the next
[plan](/docs/commands/plan.html) will show that the resource will
be destroyed and recreated and the next
[apply](/docs/commands/apply.html) will implement this change.

Forcing the recreation of a resource is useful when you want a certain
side effect of recreation that is not visible in the attributes of a resource.
For example: re-running provisioners will cause the node to be different
or rebooting the machine from a base image will cause new startup scripts
to run.

Note that tainting a resource for recreation may affect resources that
depend on the newly tainted resource. For example, a DNS resource that
uses the IP address of a server may need to be modified to reflect
the potentially new IP address of a tainted server. The
[plan command](/docs/commands/plan.html) will show this if this is
the case.

## Usage

Usage: `terraform taint [options] address`

The `address` argument is the address of the resource to mark as tainted.
The address is in
[the resource address syntax](/docs/internals/resource-addressing.html) syntax,
as shown in the output from other commands, such as:

 * `aws_instance.foo`
 * `aws_instance.bar[1]`
 * `aws_instance.baz``[\"key\"]` (quotes in resource addresses must be escaped on the command line, so that they are not interpreted by your shell)
 * `module.foo.module.bar.aws_instance.qux`

The command-line flags are all optional. 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.

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

## Example: Tainting a Single Resource

This example will taint a single resource:

```
$ terraform taint aws_security_group.allow_all
The resource aws_security_group.allow_all in the module root has been marked as tainted.
```

## Example: Tainting a single resource created with for_each

It is necessary to wrap the resource in single quotes and escape the quotes.
This example will taint a single resource created with for_each:

```
$ terraform taint 'module.route_tables.azurerm_route_table.rt[\"DefaultSubnet\"]'
The resource module.route_tables.azurerm_route_table.rt["DefaultSubnet"] in the module root has been marked as tainted.
```


## Example: Tainting a Resource within a Module

This example will only taint a resource within a module:

```
$ terraform taint "module.couchbase.aws_instance.cb_node[9]"
Resource instance module.couchbase.aws_instance.cb_node[9] has been marked as tainted.
```

Although we recommend that most configurations use only one level of nesting
and employ [module composition](/docs/modules/composition.html), it's possible
to have multiple levels of nested modules. In that case the resource instance
address must include all of the steps to the target instance, as in the
following example:

```
$ terraform taint "module.child.module.grandchild.aws_instance.example[2]"
Resource instance module.child.module.grandchild.aws_instance.example[2] has been marked as tainted.
```