Set a retention policy

An example of how to set a retention policy on a bucket.

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For detailed documentation that includes this code sample, see the following:

Code sample

C++

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C++ API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

namespace gcs = ::google::cloud::storage;
using ::google::cloud::StatusOr;
[](gcs::Client client, std::string const& bucket_name,
   std::chrono::seconds period) {
  StatusOr<gcs::BucketMetadata> original =
      client.GetBucketMetadata(bucket_name);
  if (!original) throw std::move(original).status();

  StatusOr<gcs::BucketMetadata> patched = client.PatchBucket(
      bucket_name,
      gcs::BucketMetadataPatchBuilder().SetRetentionPolicy(period),
      gcs::IfMetagenerationMatch(original->metageneration()));
  if (!patched) throw std::move(patched).status();

  if (!patched->has_retention_policy()) {
    std::cout << "The bucket " << patched->name()
              << " does not have a retention policy set.\n";
    return;
  }

  std::cout << "The bucket " << patched->name()
            << " retention policy is set to " << patched->retention_policy()
            << "\n";
}

C#

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C# API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.


using Google.Cloud.Storage.V1;
using System;
using static Google.Apis.Storage.v1.Data.Bucket;

public class SetRetentionPolicySample
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Sets the bucket's retention policy.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="bucketName">The name of the bucket.</param>
    /// <param name="retentionPeriod">The duration in seconds that objects need to be retained. The retention policy enforces a minimum retention
    /// time for all objects contained in the bucket, based on their creation time. Any
    /// attempt to overwrite or delete objects younger than the retention period will
    /// result in a PERMISSION_DENIED error. An unlocked retention policy can be modified
    /// or removed from the bucket via a storage.buckets.update operation. A locked retention
    /// policy cannot be removed or shortened in duration for the lifetime of the bucket.
    /// Attempting to remove or decrease the period of a locked retention policy will result
    /// in a PERMISSION_DENIED error.</param>
    public RetentionPolicyData SetRetentionPolicy(
        string bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name",
        long retentionPeriod = 10)
    {
        var storage = StorageClient.Create();
        var bucket = storage.GetBucket(bucketName);
        bucket.RetentionPolicy = new RetentionPolicyData { RetentionPeriod = retentionPeriod };

        bucket = storage.UpdateBucket(bucket);

        Console.WriteLine($"Retention policy for {bucketName} was set to {retentionPeriod}");
        return bucket.RetentionPolicy;
    }
}

Go

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Go API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"time"

	"cloud.google.com/go/storage"
)

// setRetentionPolicy sets the bucket retention period.
func setRetentionPolicy(w io.Writer, bucketName string, retentionPeriod time.Duration) error {
	// bucketName := "bucket-name"
	// retentionPeriod := time.Second
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := storage.NewClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("storage.NewClient: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, time.Second*10)
	defer cancel()

	bucket := client.Bucket(bucketName)
	bucketAttrsToUpdate := storage.BucketAttrsToUpdate{
		RetentionPolicy: &storage.RetentionPolicy{
			RetentionPeriod: retentionPeriod,
		},
	}
	if _, err := bucket.Update(ctx, bucketAttrsToUpdate); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Bucket(%q).Update: %w", bucketName, err)
	}
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Retention policy for %v was set to %v\n", bucketName, bucketAttrsToUpdate.RetentionPolicy.RetentionPeriod)
	return nil
}

Java

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.


import com.google.cloud.storage.Bucket;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Storage;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Storage.BucketTargetOption;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageException;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageOptions;
import java.time.Duration;

public class SetRetentionPolicy {
  public static void setRetentionPolicy(
      String projectId, String bucketName, Long retentionPeriodSeconds) throws StorageException {
    // The ID of your GCP project
    // String projectId = "your-project-id";

    // The ID of your GCS bucket
    // String bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name";

    // The retention period for objects in bucket
    // Long retentionPeriodSeconds = 3600L; // 1 hour in seconds

    Storage storage = StorageOptions.newBuilder().setProjectId(projectId).build().getService();

    // first look up the bucket so we will have its metageneration
    Bucket bucket = storage.get(bucketName);
    Bucket bucketWithRetentionPolicy =
        storage.update(
            bucket
                .toBuilder()
                .setRetentionPeriodDuration(Duration.ofSeconds(retentionPeriodSeconds))
                .build(),
            BucketTargetOption.metagenerationMatch());

    System.out.println(
        "Retention period for "
            + bucketName
            + " is now "
            + bucketWithRetentionPolicy.getRetentionPeriodDuration());
  }
}

Node.js

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Node.js API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following lines before running the sample.
 */
// The ID of your GCS bucket
// const bucketName = 'your-unique-bucket-name';

// The retention period for objects in bucket
// const retentionPeriod = 3600; // 1 hour in seconds

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {Storage} = require('@google-cloud/storage');

// Creates a client
const storage = new Storage();

async function setRetentionPolicy() {
  const [metadata] = await storage
    .bucket(bucketName)
    .setRetentionPeriod(retentionPeriod);
  console.log(
    `Bucket ${bucketName} retention period set for ${metadata.retentionPolicy.retentionPeriod} seconds.`
  );
}

setRetentionPolicy().catch(console.error);

PHP

For more information, see the Cloud Storage PHP API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

use Google\Cloud\Storage\StorageClient;

/**
 * Sets a bucket's retention policy.
 *
 * @param string $bucketName The name of your Cloud Storage bucket.
 *        (e.g. 'my-bucket')
 * @param int $retentionPeriod The retention period for objects in bucket, in seconds.
 *        (e.g. 3600)
 */
function set_retention_policy(string $bucketName, int $retentionPeriod): void
{
    $storage = new StorageClient();
    $bucket = $storage->bucket($bucketName);
    $bucket->update([
        'retentionPolicy' => [
            'retentionPeriod' => $retentionPeriod
        ]]);
    printf('Bucket %s retention period set to %s seconds' . PHP_EOL, $bucketName,
        $retentionPeriod);
}

Python

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Python API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

from google.cloud import storage


def set_retention_policy(bucket_name, retention_period):
    """Defines a retention policy on a given bucket"""
    # bucket_name = "my-bucket"
    # retention_period = 10

    storage_client = storage.Client()
    bucket = storage_client.bucket(bucket_name)

    bucket.retention_period = retention_period
    bucket.patch()

    print(
        "Bucket {} retention period set for {} seconds".format(
            bucket.name, bucket.retention_period
        )
    )

Ruby

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Ruby API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

def set_retention_policy bucket_name:, retention_period:
  # The ID of your GCS bucket
  # bucket_name = "your-unique-bucket-name"

  # The retention period for objects in bucket
  # retention_period = 3600 # 1 hour in seconds

  require "google/cloud/storage"

  storage = Google::Cloud::Storage.new
  bucket  = storage.bucket bucket_name

  bucket.retention_period = retention_period

  puts "Retention period for #{bucket_name} is now #{bucket.retention_period} seconds."
end

What's next

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