What happens if I delete an S3 object before replication?

Question

Long time listener, first time caller...

If I have an S3 bucket which is versioned (as per the documentation for replication) and bucket replication is enabled; what happens if the source bucket object is deleted before replication has taken place?

I'm assuming (as the source bucket is versioned) the replication will still take place. The replication logic surely sees a new object creation event and replicates this in the destination bucket. Because I've not specified any other configuration, the delete marker subsequently placed on the source bucket object will not be replicated onto the destination object. Therefore it should just appear as normal in the destination bucket and not be visible in the source bucket.

I can't find anything concrete in the documentation that clarifies the position on this situation.

Answer 1

It depends on which option you choose in your replication configuration:

• V1: the delete marker is replicated - a subsequent GET request to the deleted object does not return the object in either the source or the destination bucket.
• V2: the delete marker is not replicated - a subsequent GET request to the deleted object returns the object only in the destination bucket.

For more, see Managing delete marker replication in Amazon S3.