Removing Delete Markers

To delete a delete marker, you must specify its version ID in a DELETE Object versionId request. If you use a DELETE request to delete a delete marker (without specifying the version ID of the delete marker), Amazon S3 does not delete the delete marker, but instead, inserts another delete marker.

The following figure shows how a simple DELETE on a delete marker removes nothing, but adds a new delete marker to a bucket.

In a versioning-enabled bucket, this new delete marker would have a unique version ID. So, it's possible to have multiple delete markers of the same object in one bucket.

To permanently delete a delete marker, you must include its version ID in a DELETE Object versionId request. The following figure shows how a DELETE Object versionId request permanently removes a delete marker. Only the owner of a bucket can permanently remove a delete marker.

The effect of removing the delete marker is that a simple GET request will now retrieve the current version (121212) of the object.

To permanently remove a delete marker

1. Set versionId to the ID of the version to the delete marker you want to remove.

2. Send a DELETE Object versionId request.

Example Removing a Delete Marker
The following example removes the delete marker for photo.gif version 4857693.

1. DELETE /photo.gif?versionId=4857693 HTTP/1.1

2. Host: bucket.s3.amazonaws.com

3. Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:32:00 GMT

4. Authorization: AWS AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE:0RQf4/cRonhpaBX5sCYVf1bNRuU=

When you delete a delete marker, Amazon S3 includes in the response:

1. 204 NoContent

2. x-amz-version-id: versionID

3. x-amz-delete-marker: true