delete-or-empty-bucket

Deleting or Emptying a Bucket

In some situations, you may need to delete or empty a bucket that contains objects. In this section, we'll explain how to delete objects in an unversioned bucket, and how to delete object versions and delete markers in a bucket that has versioning enabled. For more information about versioning, see Using Versioning. In some situations, you may choose to empty a bucket instead of deleting it. This section explains various options you can use to delete or empty a bucket that contains objects.

Topics

Delete a Bucket

You can delete a bucket and its content programmatically using the AWS SDKs. You can also use lifecycle configuration on a bucket to empty its content and then delete the bucket. There are additional options, such as using Amazon S3 console and AWS CLI, but there are limitations on these methods based on the number of objects in your bucket and the bucket's versioning status.

Topics

Delete a Bucket: Using the Amazon S3 Console

The Amazon S3 console supports deleting a bucket that may or may not be empty. For information about using the Amazon S3 console to delete a bucket, see How Do I Delete an S3 Bucket? in the Amazon Simple Storage Service Console User Guide.

Delete a Bucket: Using the AWS CLI

You can delete a bucket that contains objects using the AWS CLI only if the bucket does not have versioning enabled. If your bucket does not have versioning enabled, you can use the rb (remove bucket) AWS CLI command with --force parameter to remove a non-empty bucket. This command deletes all objects first and then deletes the bucket.

$ aws s3 rb s3://bucket-name --force

For more information, see Using High-Level S3 Commands with the AWS Command Line Interface in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

Delete a Bucket: Using the AWS SDKs

You can use the AWS SDKs to delete a bucket. The following sections provide examples of how to delete a bucket using the AWS SDK for Java and .NET. First, the code deletes objects in the bucket and then it deletes the bucket. For information about other AWS SDKs, see Tools for Amazon Web Services.

Delete a Bucket Using the AWS SDK for Java

The following Java example deletes a bucket that contains objects. The example deletes all objects, and then it deletes the bucket. The example works for buckets with or without versioning enabled.

Note
For buckets without versioning enabled, you can delete all objects directly and then delete the bucket. For buckets with versioning enabled, you must delete all object versions before deleting the bucket.

For instructions on creating and testing a working sample, see Testing the Amazon S3 Java Code Examples.

import com.amazonaws.AmazonServiceException;
import com.amazonaws.SdkClientException;
import com.amazonaws.auth.profile.ProfileCredentialsProvider;
import com.amazonaws.regions.Regions;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.AmazonS3;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.AmazonS3ClientBuilder;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.model.*;
import java.util.Iterator;
public class DeleteBucket {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Regions clientRegion = Regions.DEFAULT_REGION;
String bucketName = "*** Bucket name ***";
try {
AmazonS3 s3Client = AmazonS3ClientBuilder.standard()
.withCredentials(new ProfileCredentialsProvider())
.withRegion(clientRegion)
.build();
// Delete all objects from the bucket. This is sufficient
// for unversioned buckets. For versioned buckets, when you attempt to delete objects, Amazon S3 inserts
// delete markers for all objects, but doesn't delete the object versions.
// To delete objects from versioned buckets, delete all of the object versions before deleting
// the bucket (see below for an example).
ObjectListing objectListing = s3Client.listObjects(bucketName);
while (true) {
Iterator<S3ObjectSummary> objIter = objectListing.getObjectSummaries().iterator();
while (objIter.hasNext()) {
s3Client.deleteObject(bucketName, objIter.next().getKey());
}
// If the bucket contains many objects, the listObjects() call
// might not return all of the objects in the first listing. Check to
// see whether the listing was truncated. If so, retrieve the next page of objects
// and delete them.
if (objectListing.isTruncated()) {
objectListing = s3Client.listNextBatchOfObjects(objectListing);
} else {
break;
}
}
// Delete all object versions (required for versioned buckets).
VersionListing versionList = s3Client.listVersions(new ListVersionsRequest().withBucketName(bucketName));
while (true) {
Iterator<S3VersionSummary> versionIter = versionList.getVersionSummaries().iterator();
while (versionIter.hasNext()) {
S3VersionSummary vs = versionIter.next();
s3Client.deleteVersion(bucketName, vs.getKey(), vs.getVersionId());
}
if (versionList.isTruncated()) {
versionList = s3Client.listNextBatchOfVersions(versionList);
} else {
break;
}
}
// After all objects and object versions are deleted, delete the bucket.
s3Client.deleteBucket(bucketName);
} catch (AmazonServiceException e) {
// The call was transmitted successfully, but Amazon S3 couldn't process
// it, so it returned an error response.
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (SdkClientException e) {
// Amazon S3 couldn't be contacted for a response, or the client couldn't
// parse the response from Amazon S3.
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

Empty a Bucket

You can empty a bucket's content (that is, delete all content, but keep the bucket) programmatically using the AWS SDK. You can also specify lifecycle configuration on a bucket to expire objects so that Amazon S3 can delete them. There are additional options, such as using Amazon S3 console and AWS CLI, but there are limitations on this method based on the number of objects in your bucket and the bucket's versioning status.

Topics

Empty a Bucket: Using the Amazon S3 console

For information about using the Amazon S3 console to empty a bucket, see How Do I Empty an S3 Bucket? in the Amazon Simple Storage Service Console User Guide

Empty a Bucket: Using the AWS CLI

You can empty a bucket using the AWS CLI only if the bucket does not have versioning enabled. If your bucket does not have versioning enabled, you can use the rm (remove) AWS CLI command with the --recursive parameter to empty a bucket (or remove a subset of objects with a specific key name prefix).

The following rm command removes objects with key name prefix doc, for example, doc/doc1 and doc/doc2.

$ aws s3 rm s3://bucket-name/doc --recursive

Use the following command to remove all objects without specifying a prefix.

$ aws s3 rm s3://bucket-name --recursive

For more information, see Using High-Level S3 Commands with the AWS Command Line Interface in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

Note
You cannot remove objects from a bucket with versioning enabled. Amazon S3 adds a delete marker when you delete an object, which is what this command will do. For more information about versioning, see Using Versioning.

Empty a Bucket: Using Lifecycle Configuration

You can configure lifecycle on your bucket to expire objects and request that Amazon S3 delete expired objects. You can add lifecycle configuration rules to expire all or a subset of objects with a specific key name prefix. For example, to remove all objects in a bucket, you can set lifecycle rule to expire objects one day after creation.

If your bucket has versioning enabled, you can also configure the rule to expire noncurrent objects. To fully empty the contents of a versioning enabled bucket, you will need to configure an expiration policy on both current and noncurrent objects in the bucket.

For more information, see Object Lifecycle Management and Understanding Object Expiration.

Empty a Bucket: Using the AWS SDKs

You can use the AWS SDKs to empty a bucket or remove a subset of objects with a specific key name prefix.

For an example of how to empty a bucket using AWS SDK for Java, see Delete a Bucket Using the AWS SDK for Java. The code deletes all objects, regardless of whether the bucket has versioning enabled or not, and then it deletes the bucket. To just empty the bucket, make sure you remove the statement that deletes the bucket.

For more information about using other AWS SDKs, see Tools for Amazon Web Services.

Edit this page