kubectl-taint

kubectl taint [options] node key=value:effect

kubectl taint adds, updates, or removes node taints. A taint is a key=value:effect tuple attached to a node; pods are scheduled or kept on the node only if they carry a matching toleration in their pod spec. The supported effects are NoSchedule (block new pods that don't tolerate it), PreferNoSchedule (best-effort avoid), and NoExecute (evict running pods that don't tolerate it).Taints are the standard mechanism for dedicating nodes to a workload class (e.g., GPU nodes), keeping pods off control-plane nodes, and gracefully draining nodes for maintenance in conjunction with kubectl drain.

NODE

Node name.

Taint specification.

Prevent scheduling.

Evict existing pods.

Soft no-schedule.

Remove a taint matching the given key:effect pair (e.g. node1 dedicated:NoSchedule-).

Apply the taint operation to every node in the cluster.

Apply only to nodes matching the label selector (e.g. `--selector=role=worker`).

Allow updating the value of an existing taint (without it, attempting to add a taint with the same key produces an error).

Print what would change without modifying the cluster.

Display help information.

NoExecute evicts already-scheduled pods that lack a matching toleration; ensure tolerations are in place before tainting a populated node. Overwriting an existing taint requires --overwrite. Removing a taint uses a trailing - on the taint key (no value needed).

kubectl taint provides taint management for Kubernetes advanced scheduling control.

kubectl(1), kubectl-cordon(1), kubectl-label(1)