delete

Available in Classic and VPC

Delete a container (bucket) or object within a container.

Caution

Deleted containers and objects cannot be recovered. Using the --all option will delete all containers and objects in your account, so verify the target before executing this command.

Syntax

The delete syntax is as follows:

Account (deletes all containers and objects)

swift delete \
    --all \
    [--leave-segments] \
    [--object-threads <threads>] \
    [--container-threads <threads>] \
    [--header <header:value>]

Container (deletes container and all objects inside)

swift delete \
    <container> \
    [--prefix <prefix>] \
    [--leave-segments] \
    [--object-threads <threads>] \
    [--container-threads <threads>] \
    [--header <header:value>]

Object (deletes single or multiple objects)

swift delete \
    <container> <object> [<object> ...] \
    [--leave-segments] \
    [--object-threads <threads>] \
    [--header <header:value>]

Options

This section describes the options available when running delete.

Required options

The following options are required for delete.

Options	Type	Required	Description
`<container>`	String	Conditional	Container name to delete Required when not entering `--all`. If `<object>` is not specified, deletes all objects in the container and then delete the container.
`--all`	Boolean	Conditional	Deletes all containers and objects in the account. Required when not entering `<container>`.

Optional options

These are the optional options for delete. Options that are not specified will use their default values.

Options	Type	Required	Description
`<object>`	List	Optional	Object names to delete Multiple names can be entered, separated by spaces.
`--prefix`	String	Optional	Deletes only objects that begin with the specified prefix.
`--leave-segments`	Boolean	Optional	Does not delete segments of manifest objects.
`--object-threads`	Integer	Optional	Number of threads to use for deleting objects Default: `10`
`--container-threads`	Integer	Optional	Number of threads to use for deleting containers Default: `10`
`--header`	String	Optional	Custom header to use in the deletion request Enter in `header:value` format.

Common options

For information about the options common to all swift subcommands, see Archive Storage options.

Examples

When you run the command, the names of the deleted objects are displayed; if you deleted a container, its name is also displayed.

Command

The following is an example command for deleting an object.

swift delete test-container-01 copied.txt

The following is an example command for deleting an object using a prefix.

swift delete test-container-01 --prefix docs/

The following is an example command for deleting a container after deleting all objects within it.

swift delete test-container-01

Output

The following is an example output for deleting an object.

copied.txt

The following is an example output for deleting an object using a prefix.

docs/report.txt

The following is an example output of deleting a container after deleting all objects within it.

docs/report.txt
sample.txt
test-container-01