Does using tags for object-level deletion in AWS S3 work?

Question

I need object level auto deletion after some time in my s3 bucket, but only for some objects. I want to accomplish this by having a lifecycle rule that auto deletes objects with a certain (Tag, Value) pair. For example, I am adding the tag pair (AutoDelete, True) for objects I want to delete, and I have a lifecycle rule that deletes such objects after 1 day.

I ran some experiments to see if objects are getting deleted using this technique, but so far my object has not been deleted. (It may get deleted soon??)

If anyone has experience with this technique, please let me know if this does not work, because so far my object has not been deleted, even though it is past its expiration date.

Answer 1

Yes, you can use S3 object lifecycle rules to delete objects having a given tag.

Based on my experience, lifecycle rules based on time are approximate, so it's possible that you need to wait longer. I have also found that complex lifecycle rules can be tricky -- my advice is to start with a simple test in a test bucket and work your way up.

There's decent documentation here on AWS.