How to Import an AWS S3 Bucket ACL into Terraform

Import AWS S3 Bucket ACL with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Amazon S3 resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS S3 Bucket ACL to managed Terraform.

terraback scan all aws --region us-east-1

terraback aws import --method bulk

The Terraform import block

Terraback emits a Terraform 1.5+ import block like the one below. Because the block lives in your configuration, the import is reviewable in a pull request and repeatable across environments.

import {
  to = aws_s3_bucket_acl.assets
  id = "my-app-assets,private"
}

Example aws_s3_bucket_acl configuration

Here is a realistic AWS S3 Bucket ACL block. Terraback generates a fuller version from your actual resource attributes; this is a minimal, valid starting point.

resource "aws_s3_bucket_acl" "assets" {
  bucket = "my-app-assets"
  acl    = "private"
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS S3 Bucket ACL

• The import ID is comma-separated bucket,acl (for example my-app-assets,private), not just the bucket name.
• ACLs only work when object ownership allows them; with BucketOwnerEnforced (the default for new buckets) ACLs are disabled and this resource is rejected, so set aws_s3_bucket_ownership_controls first.
• Most modern buckets should use bucket policies instead of ACLs; only import this if the bucket genuinely relies on a canned or grant-based ACL.
• When expected_bucket_owner is set the ID has three comma-separated parts: bucket,account-id,acl.

Doing it manually with terraform import

The native approach is to write the aws_s3_bucket_acl block by hand, then run terraform import aws_s3_bucket_acl.example <import-id> for every resource, one at a time. That works for a handful of resources, but it does not scale: you author all the HCL yourself and repeat the command for each item. Terraback generates the HCL and the import blocks for your whole account in one pass.

Import other AWS resources