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Object Storage Service:Delete objects

Last Updated:Aug 31, 2023

You can delete one or more objects at a time, delete objects whose names contain a specified prefix, or delete a specified directory and all objects in the directory.

Warning

Deleted objects cannot be recovered. Exercise caution when you delete objects.

Usage notes

  • In this topic, the public endpoint of the China (Hangzhou) region is used. If you want to access OSS by using other Alibaba Cloud services in the same region as OSS, use an internal endpoint. For more information about the regions and endpoints supported by OSS, see Regions and endpoints.

  • In this topic, access credentials are obtained from environment variables. For more information about how to configure access credentials, see Configure access credentials.

  • In this topic, an OSSClient instance is created by using an OSS endpoint. If you want to create an OSSClient instance by using custom domain names or Security Token Service (STS), see Create an OSSClient instance.

  • To delete an object, you must have the oss:DeleteObject permission. For more information, see Common examples of RAM policies.

Delete an object

The following sample code provides an example on how to delete the exampleobject.txt object from the examplebucket bucket:

import com.aliyun.oss.ClientException;
import com.aliyun.oss.OSS;
import com.aliyun.oss.common.auth.*;
import com.aliyun.oss.OSSClientBuilder;
import com.aliyun.oss.OSSException;

public class Demo {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        // In this example, the endpoint of the China (Hangzhou) region is used. Specify your actual endpoint. 
        String endpoint = "https://oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com";
        // Obtain access credentials from environment variables. Before you run the sample code, make sure that the OSS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and OSS_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET environment variables are configured. 
        EnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider credentialsProvider = CredentialsProviderFactory.newEnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider();
        // Specify the name of the bucket. Example: examplebucket. 
        String bucketName = "examplebucket";
        // Specify the full path of the object. Do not include the bucket name in the full path. 
        String objectName = "exampleobject.txt";

        // Create an OSSClient instance. 
        OSS ossClient = new OSSClientBuilder().build(endpoint, credentialsProvider);

        try {
            // Delete the object or the directory. Before you delete a directory, make sure that the directory does not contain objects. 
            ossClient.deleteObject(bucketName, objectName);
        } catch (OSSException oe) {
            System.out.println("Caught an OSSException, which means your request made it to OSS, "
                    + "but was rejected with an error response for some reason.");
            System.out.println("Error Message:" + oe.getErrorMessage());
            System.out.println("Error Code:" + oe.getErrorCode());
            System.out.println("Request ID:" + oe.getRequestId());
            System.out.println("Host ID:" + oe.getHostId());
        } catch (ClientException ce) {
            System.out.println("Caught an ClientException, which means the client encountered "
                    + "a serious internal problem while trying to communicate with OSS, "
                    + "such as not being able to access the network.");
            System.out.println("Error Message:" + ce.getMessage());
        } finally {
            if (ossClient != null) {
                ossClient.shutdown();
            }
        }
    }
}            

Delete multiple objects

You can delete up to 1,000 objects at a time. You can delete multiple specified objects, objects whose names contain a specified prefix, or a specified directory and all objects in the directory.

You can also configure lifecycle rules to automatically delete objects. For more information, see Lifecycle rules based on the last modification time.

Parameters

  • Request parameters

    Parameter

    Description

    Method

    Keys

    The objects that you want to delete.

    setKeys(List<String>)

    quiet

    Specifies whether the mode in which the result can be returned is quiet. You can select one of the following modes:

    • verbose: All deleted objects are returned. This is the default return mode. If you set the quiet parameter to false or do not configure the quiet parameter, the result is returned in this mode.

    • quiet: If quiet is set to true, the response does not include the deleted objects.

    setQuiet(boolean)

    encodingType

    The method that you want to use to encode the object names in the result. Only URL encoding is supported.

    setEncodingType(String)

  • Response parameters

    Parameter

    Description

    Method

    deletedObjects

    The result of the delete operation.

    • In the verbose mode, a list of deleted objects is returned. The objects that were specified in the delete operation but do not exist are also included in the result.

    • In the quiet mode, a list of objects that failed to be deleted is returned.

    List<String> getDeletedObjects()

    encodingType

    The method used to encode the object names in the result. If this parameter is empty, the object names are not encoded.

    getEncodingType()

Delete multiple specified objects

The following sample code provides an example on how to delete multiple specified objects:

import com.aliyun.oss.ClientException;
import com.aliyun.oss.OSS;
import com.aliyun.oss.common.auth.*;
import com.aliyun.oss.OSSClientBuilder;
import com.aliyun.oss.OSSException;
import com.aliyun.oss.model.DeleteObjectsRequest;
import com.aliyun.oss.model.DeleteObjectsResult;
import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
import java.net.URLDecoder;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class Demo {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        // In this example, the endpoint of the China (Hangzhou) region is used. Specify your actual endpoint. 
        String endpoint = "https://oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com";
        // Obtain access credentials from environment variables. Before you run the sample code, make sure that the OSS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and OSS_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET environment variables are configured. 
        EnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider credentialsProvider = CredentialsProviderFactory.newEnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider();
        // Specify the name of the bucket. Example: examplebucket. 
        String bucketName = "examplebucket";

        // Create an OSSClient instance. 
        OSS ossClient = new OSSClientBuilder().build(endpoint, credentialsProvider);

        try {
            // Delete the objects. 
            // Specify the full paths of the objects that you want to delete. Do not include the bucket name in the full paths. 
            List<String> keys = new ArrayList<String>();
            keys.add("exampleobjecta.txt");
            keys.add("testfolder/sampleobject.txt");
            keys.add("exampleobjectb.txt");

            DeleteObjectsResult deleteObjectsResult = ossClient.deleteObjects(new DeleteObjectsRequest(bucketName).withKeys(keys).withEncodingType("url"));
            List<String> deletedObjects = deleteObjectsResult.getDeletedObjects();
            try {
                for(String obj : deletedObjects) {
                    String deleteObj =  URLDecoder.decode(obj, "UTF-8");
                    System.out.println(deleteObj);
                }
            } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        } catch (OSSException oe) {
            System.out.println("Caught an OSSException, which means your request made it to OSS, "
                    + "but was rejected with an error response for some reason.");
            System.out.println("Error Message:" + oe.getErrorMessage());
            System.out.println("Error Code:" + oe.getErrorCode());
            System.out.println("Request ID:" + oe.getRequestId());
            System.out.println("Host ID:" + oe.getHostId());
        } catch (ClientException ce) {
            System.out.println("Caught an ClientException, which means the client encountered "
                    + "a serious internal problem while trying to communicate with OSS, "
                    + "such as not being able to access the network.");
            System.out.println("Error Message:" + ce.getMessage());
        } finally {
            if (ossClient != null) {
                ossClient.shutdown();
            }
        }
    }
}         

Delete multiple objects with a specified object name prefix or in a specified directory

The following sample code provides an example on how to delete multiple objects with a specified name prefix and how to delete a specified directory and all objects in the directory.

Warning

If the prefix is not specified or is set to NULL in the following code, all objects in the bucket are deleted. Exercise caution when you specify a prefix in a delete operation.

import com.aliyun.oss.ClientException;
import com.aliyun.oss.OSS;
import com.aliyun.oss.common.auth.*;
import com.aliyun.oss.OSSClientBuilder;
import com.aliyun.oss.OSSException;
import com.aliyun.oss.model.*;
import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
import java.net.URLDecoder;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class Demo {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        // In this example, the endpoint of the China (Hangzhou) region is used. Specify your actual endpoint. 
        String endpoint = "https://oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com";
        // Obtain access credentials from environment variables. Before you run the sample code, make sure that the OSS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and OSS_ACCESS_KEY_SECRET environment variables are configured. 
        EnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider credentialsProvider = CredentialsProviderFactory.newEnvironmentVariableCredentialsProvider();
        // Specify the name of the bucket. Example: examplebucket. 
        String bucketName = "examplebucket";
        // Specify the prefix of the names of the objects that you want to delete. If you want to delete all objects whose names contain the src prefix, set the prefix to src. After you set the prefix to src, all non-directory objects whose names contain the src prefix, the src directory, and all objects in the src directory are deleted. 
        String prefix = "src";
        // If you want to delete only the src directory and all objects in the directory, set the prefix to src/. 
        // String prefix = "src/";

        // Create an OSSClient instance. 
        OSS ossClient = new OSSClientBuilder().build(endpoint, credentialsProvider);

        try {
            // List all objects whose names contain the specified prefix and delete the objects. 
            String nextMarker = null;
            ObjectListing objectListing = null;
            do {
                ListObjectsRequest listObjectsRequest = new ListObjectsRequest(bucketName)
                        .withPrefix(prefix)
                        .withMarker(nextMarker);

                objectListing = ossClient.listObjects(listObjectsRequest);
                if (objectListing.getObjectSummaries().size() > 0) {
                    List<String> keys = new ArrayList<String>();
                    for (OSSObjectSummary s : objectListing.getObjectSummaries()) {
                        System.out.println("key name: " + s.getKey());
                        keys.add(s.getKey());
                    }
                    DeleteObjectsRequest deleteObjectsRequest = new DeleteObjectsRequest(bucketName).withKeys(keys).withEncodingType("url");
                    DeleteObjectsResult deleteObjectsResult = ossClient.deleteObjects(deleteObjectsRequest);
                    List<String> deletedObjects = deleteObjectsResult.getDeletedObjects();
                    try {
                        for(String obj : deletedObjects) {
                            String deleteObj =  URLDecoder.decode(obj, "UTF-8");
                            System.out.println(deleteObj);
                        }
                    } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
                        e.printStackTrace();
                    }
                }

                nextMarker = objectListing.getNextMarker();
            } while (objectListing.isTruncated());
        } catch (OSSException oe) {
            System.out.println("Caught an OSSException, which means your request made it to OSS, "
                    + "but was rejected with an error response for some reason.");
            System.out.println("Error Message:" + oe.getErrorMessage());
            System.out.println("Error Code:" + oe.getErrorCode());
            System.out.println("Request ID:" + oe.getRequestId());
            System.out.println("Host ID:" + oe.getHostId());
        } catch (ClientException ce) {
            System.out.println("Caught an ClientException, which means the client encountered "
                    + "a serious internal problem while trying to communicate with OSS, "
                    + "such as not being able to access the network.");
            System.out.println("Error Message:" + ce.getMessage());
        } finally {
            if (ossClient != null) {
                ossClient.shutdown();
            }
        }
    }
}

FAQ

How do I check whether the object that I delete by using OSS SDK for Java is actually deleted?

If no exception is returned when you use deleteObject of OSSClient in OSS SDK for Java to delete an object, the object is deleted. If you want to confirm whether the object is deleted, you can use the doesObjectExist method of OSSClient to check whether the object exists. If false is returned, the object is deleted. For more information, see Determine whether an object exists.

References

  • Delete an object

    For more information about the API operation that you can call to delete an object, see DeleteObject.

  • Delete multiple objects

    • For the complete sample code that is used to delete multiple objects, visit GitHub.

    • For more information about the API operation that you can call to delete multiple objects, see DeleteMultipleObjects.