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Add Files and Objects to Buckets

Interact with your buckets in Object Storage

Prerequisites​

This guide presumes you have the following:

Add objects using the AWS CLI​

Ensure you have the AWS CLI installed and configured.

Use the s3 cp command to copy a file into a bucket addressed using the s3:// scheme.

Example command
$
aws s3 cp /path/to/my-file s3://my-bucket-name
Example output
upload: ./my-important-file.txt to s3://my-bucket-name/my-important-file.txt

List buckets and their contents​

If you want to see all of your available buckets, use the ls command:

Example
$
aws s3 ls

To list all the objects currently in a bucket, use the ls command to target a bucket path.

Example
$
aws s3 ls s3://my-bucket-name

The terminal or command prompt will return a YAML file for your selected bucket, listing all objects within it, their sizes, and their last modified dates.

Example
2024-10-14 15:35:10 123456 my-first-file.txt

2024-10-14 16:45:22 234567 another-file-of-mine.txt

Delete an object from a bucket​

To delete specific objects from a bucket, use the rm command with the AWS CLI.

Example
$
aws s3 rm s3://my-bucket-name/my-important-file.txt

When this succeeds, a confirmation message like this one is printed:

Example
$
delete: s3://my-bucket-name/my-important-file.txt

Add objects to a bucket using s3cmd​

Ensure you have s3cmd installed, configured and correctly credentialed.

Use the put command to copy an object into the bucket.

Example command
$
s3cmd put /path/to/my-file s3://my-bucket-name/

This returns the following output, confirming your object has been stored in your bucket:

Example output
$
upload: 'my-important-file.txt' -> 's3://my-bucket-name/my-important-file.txt

List all buckets and see their contents​

If you want to see all the buckets available in your account, use the ls command.

Example
$
s3cmd ls

To see the contents of a specific bucket, target the bucket's path using the s3:// scheme.

Example command
$
s3cmd ls s3://my-bucket-name/

This command will output a list of file paths including the bucket name and file name. For example:

Example output
2024-10-14 15:35 123456 s3://my-bucket-name/my-first-file.txt

2024-10-14 16:45 234567 s3://my-bucket-name/another-file-of-mine.txt

Delete an object from a bucket​

To delete an object from a bucket, use the del command to delete things from a bucket in Object Storage.

Example command
$
s3cmd del s3://my-bucket-name/my-important-file.txt

If this succeeds, a confirmation message is printed:

Example output
Object s3://my-bucket-name/my-important-file.txt deleted

Add objects programmatically using Boto3​

Ensure you have Boto3 installed, configured, and correctly credentialed. before continuing. Open your Python environment and use the following script to upload a file to your S3 bucket:

Example
import boto3



# Create the S3 client

s3 = boto3.client('s3')



# Define your bucket name and the file path

bucket_name = 'my-bucket-name'

file_name = '/path/to/my-file`

object_name = 'my-important-file'  # This is optional. If you don't set a value, it will use the same string as your file_name.



# Upload file

s3.upload_file(file_name, bucket_name, object_name)



print(f'File {file_name} uploaded to {bucket_name}/{object_name}')

If this succeeds, a confirmation message is printed.

Example output
File /path/to/my-file uploaded to my-bucket-name/my-important-file

List buckets and see their contents​

List all your buckets programmatically in Boto3 using the following script:

Example
import boto3



# Create the S3 client

s3 = boto3.client('s3')



# List all your buckets

response = s3.list_buckets()



# Output your bucket names

print("Existing buckets:")

for bucket in response['Buckets']:

    print(f'  {bucket["Name"]}')

The following script may be used to view the contents of a specific bucket:

Example
import boto3



# Create the S3 client

s3 = boto3.client('s3')



# Define your bucket name

bucket_name = 'my-bucket-name'



# List the objects in the specified bucket

response = s3.list_objects_v2(Bucket=bucket_name)



# Output the object keys

if 'Contents' in response:

    print(f"Objects in {bucket_name}:")

    for obj in response['Contents']:

        print(f'  {obj["Key"]} (Size: {obj["Size"]} bytes)')

else:

    print(f"No objects found in {bucket_name}.")

The resulting output looks similar to the following:

Example output
Objects in my-bucket-name:

my-first-file.txt (Size: 4500 bytes)

another-file-of-mine.txt (Size: 5400 bytes)

Delete an object from a bucket​

The following script may be used to delete an object from a bucket.

Example
import boto3



# Create the S3 client

s3 = boto3.client('s3')



# Define your bucket name and the object key you're deleting

bucket_name = 'my-bucket-name'

object_name = 'my-important-file'



# Delete the object

s3.delete_object(Bucket=bucket_name, Key=object_name)



print(f'Object {object_name} deleted from {bucket_name}')

If successful, a success message is printed:

Example output
Object my-important-file deleted from my-bucket-name
Learn more

For more information about accessing and interacting with the contents of your buckets, see the official Amazon documentation for s3 buckets.

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