---
page_title: 'Command: taint'
description: |-
  The `terraform taint` command informs Terraform that a particular object
  is damaged or degraded.
---

# Command: taint

The `terraform taint` command informs Terraform that a particular object has
become degraded or damaged. Terraform represents this by marking the
object as "tainted" in the Terraform state, and Terraform will
propose to replace it in the next plan you create.

~> **Warning:** This command is deprecated. For Terraform v0.15.2 and later, we recommend using the `-replace` option with `terraform apply` instead (details below).

## Recommended Alternative

For Terraform v0.15.2 and later, we recommend using the [`-replace` option](/terraform/cli/commands/plan#replace-address) with `terraform apply` to force Terraform to replace an object even though there are no configuration changes that would require it.

```
$ terraform apply -replace="aws_instance.example[0]"
```

We recommend the `-replace` option because the change will be reflected in the Terraform plan, letting you understand how it will affect your infrastructure before you take any externally-visible action. When you use `terraform taint`, other users could create a new plan against your tainted object before you can review the effects.

## 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](/terraform/cli/state/resource-addressing),
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 will not be interpreted by your shell)
- `module.foo.module.bar.aws_instance.qux`

This command accepts the following options:

- `-allow-missing` - If specified, the command will succeed (exit code 0)
  even if the resource is missing. The command might still return an error
  for other situations, such as if there is a problem reading or writing
  the state.

- `-lock=false` - Disables Terraform's default behavior of attempting to take
  a read/write lock on the state for the duration of the operation.

- `-lock-timeout=DURATION` - Unless locking is disabled with `-lock=false`,
  instructs Terraform to retry acquiring a lock for a period of time before
  returning an error. The duration syntax is a number followed by a time
  unit letter, such as "3s" for three seconds.

For configurations using the [HCP Terraform CLI integration](/terraform/cli/cloud) or the [`remote` backend](/terraform/language/backend/remote) only, `terraform taint`
also accepts the option
[`-ignore-remote-version`](/terraform/cli/cloud/command-line-arguments#ignore-remote-version).

For configurations using
[the `local` backend](/terraform/language/backend/local) only,
`terraform taint` also accepts the legacy options
[`-state`, `-state-out`, and `-backup`](/terraform/language/backend/local#command-line-arguments).
