Versioning

S3 allows you to keep multiple versions of an object in a bucket. Versioning can be enabled at bucket level. Once versioning is enabled, it protects you from accidental updates and deletes on an object. When you overwrite or delete an object, it keeps multiple copies with version numbers.

For example, when you enable versioning on a bucket called packtpub, for each action on an existing object in the bucket, S3 creates a new version and associates a version ID with it, as shown in the following table:

Object	Last activity	Version ID
developer-guide.pdf	Jun 12, 2017 9:42:02 AM	VAgAtLChtLoMkKF4ZVoq.NAGRRBA1hSp
developer-guide.pdf	Jun 11, 2017 8:41:23 AM	3mWAzx.l25VRt3.V.1ExutyOAEG1npX3
developer-guide.pdf	Jun 10, 2017 5:39:58 PM	hV_2iz3GgRvOTt1NoiL8KXg3FpLJkFI7

 

When you delete an object in a version-enabled bucket, S3 does not actually delete the object but instead adds a delete marker to it.

Enabling versioning on a bucket

The steps for enabling versioning on a bucket are as follows:

1. Sign in to...