Lifecycle Policies

S4 supports S3-compatible lifecycle policies for automatic object management. Use lifecycle rules to automatically delete objects after a specified number of days, clean up old versions, or remove expired delete markers.

Supported Rules

Rule Type	Description
Expiration (Days)	Delete current version after N days
NoncurrentVersionExpiration	Delete old versions after N days
ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker	Remove delete markers when all versions are gone

Rules can be filtered by key prefix (e.g., apply only to objects under logs/).

Set Lifecycle Configuration

Create a JSON configuration file:

{
  "Rules": [
    {
      "ID": "expire-logs",
      "Status": "Enabled",
      "Filter": {
        "Prefix": "logs/"
      },
      "Expiration": {
        "Days": 30
      }
    },
    {
      "ID": "cleanup-old-versions",
      "Status": "Enabled",
      "Filter": {
        "Prefix": ""
      },
      "NoncurrentVersionExpiration": {
        "NoncurrentDays": 90
      }
    }
  ]
}

Apply it to a bucket:

aws s3api put-bucket-lifecycle-configuration \
  --bucket mybucket \
  --lifecycle-configuration file://lifecycle.json \
  --endpoint-url http://localhost:9000

Get Lifecycle Configuration

aws s3api get-bucket-lifecycle-configuration \
  --bucket mybucket \
  --endpoint-url http://localhost:9000

Delete Lifecycle Configuration

aws s3api delete-bucket-lifecycle \
  --bucket mybucket \
  --endpoint-url http://localhost:9000

Background Worker

S4 runs a background lifecycle worker that periodically evaluates rules and deletes expired objects.

Configuration

Variable	Description	Default
`S4_LIFECYCLE_ENABLED`	Enable or disable the worker	`true`
`S4_LIFECYCLE_INTERVAL_HOURS`	How often rules are evaluated	`24`
`S4_LIFECYCLE_DRY_RUN`	Log actions without deleting	`false`

Dry-Run Mode

Use dry-run mode to test lifecycle rules without actually deleting any data:

export S4_LIFECYCLE_DRY_RUN=true

The worker will log which objects would be deleted, allowing you to verify the rules before enabling actual deletion.

Example: Common Configurations

Delete temp files after 7 days

{
  "Rules": [
    {
      "ID": "cleanup-temp",
      "Status": "Enabled",
      "Filter": { "Prefix": "tmp/" },
      "Expiration": { "Days": 7 }
    }
  ]
}

Keep only 30 days of versions

{
  "Rules": [
    {
      "ID": "expire-old-versions",
      "Status": "Enabled",
      "Filter": { "Prefix": "" },
      "NoncurrentVersionExpiration": { "NoncurrentDays": 30 }
    }
  ]
}

Combined: expire current + noncurrent + markers

{
  "Rules": [
    {
      "ID": "full-cleanup",
      "Status": "Enabled",
      "Filter": { "Prefix": "" },
      "Expiration": { "Days": 365 },
      "NoncurrentVersionExpiration": { "NoncurrentDays": 90 },
      "ExpiredObjectDeleteMarker": true
    }
  ]
}