terraform force-unlock does not repair infrastructure.
It removes a backend coordination lock protecting Terraform state operations.
In this lesson, I break down how Terraform locking works, why stale locks occur, and why premature unlock operations create dangerous conditions for shared infrastructure environments.
The most important concept is ownership validation.
If two Terraform operations believe they own the same infrastructure history simultaneously, Terraform state can drift away from actual infrastructure reality. Future plans may then propose unexpected replacements or deletions.
This lesson focuses on:
- Remote backend locking
- S3 lockfiles
- Stale lock behavior
- Lock IDs
- Safe recovery sequencing
- Concurrent state writer risks