mc ilm rule add

Parameters

ALIAS

Required

The alias and bucket on the MinIO deployment to which to add the object lifecycle management rule.

For example:

mc ilm rule add myminio/mydata

--prefix

Optional

Restrict the management rule to a specific object prefix.

For example:

mc ilm rule add --prefix "meetingnotes/" myminio/mydata --expire-days "90"

The command creates a rule that expires objects in the mydata bucket of the myminio ALIAS after 90 days for any object with the meetingnotes/ prefix.

--tags

Optional

One or more ampersand &-delimited key-value pairs describing the object tags to use for filtering objects to which the lifecycle configuration rule applies.

This option is mutually exclusive with the following option:

• --expire-delete-marker

--expire-all-object-versions

Optional

New in version mc: RELEASE.2024-02-24T01-33-20Z

Expire all current and noncurrent versions of an object. Use with the --expire-days option to specify the number of days after which all versions of an object should be deleted by the scanner process.

After the scanner processes this command, no versions of the object remain on the deployment.

Changed in version MinIO: RELEASE.2024-05-01T01-11-10Z

This flag only applies to objects that do not have a delete marker as the latest version.

--expire-days

Optional

The number of days to retain an object after being created. MinIO marks the object for deletion after the specified number of days pass. Specify the number of days as an integer, for example 30 for 30 days.

For versioned buckets, the expiry rule applies only to the current object version. Use either the --noncurrent-expire-days flag or the --expire-all-object-versions flag to apply expiration behavior to noncurrent object versions.

MinIO uses a scanner process to check objects against all configured lifecycle management rules. Slow scanning due to high IO workloads or limited system resources may delay application of lifecycle management rules. See Lifecycle Management Object Scanner for more information.

Mutually exclusive with the following options:

• --expire-delete-marker

For more complete documentation on object expiration, see Object Expiration and Object Deletion.

--expire-delete-marker

Optional

Specify this option to direct MinIO to remove delete markers for objects with no remaining object versions. Specifically, the delete marker is the only remaining “version” of the given object.

This option is mutually exclusive with the following option:

• --tags

• --expire-days

MinIO uses a scanner process to check objects against all configured lifecycle management rules. Slow scanning due to high IO workloads or limited system resources may delay application of lifecycle management rules. See Lifecycle Management Object Scanner for more information.

For more complete documentation on object expiration, see Object Expiration and Object Deletion.

--transition-days

Optional

The number of calendar days from object creation after which MinIO marks an object as eligible for transition. MinIO transitions the object to the configured remote tier specified to the --transition-tier. Specify the number of days as an integer, e.g. 30 for 30 days.

For versioned buckets, the transition rule applies only to the current object version. Use the --noncurrent-transition-days option to apply transition behavior to noncurrent object versions.

Requires specifying --transition-tier.

MinIO uses a scanner process to check objects against all configured lifecycle management rules. Slow scanning due to high IO workloads or limited system resources may delay application of lifecycle management rules. See Lifecycle Management Object Scanner for more information.

For more complete documentation on object transition, see Object Transition (“Tiering”).

--transition-tier

Optional

The remote tier to which MinIO transition objects. Specify an existing remote tier created by mc ilm tier add.

Required if specifying --transition-days.

--noncurrent-expire-days

Optional

The number of days to retain an object version after becoming non-current (i.e. a different version of that object is now the HEAD). MinIO marks noncurrent object versions for deletion after the specified number of days pass.

This option has the same behavior as the S3 NoncurrentVersionExpiration action.

MinIO uses a scanner process to check objects against all configured lifecycle management rules. Slow scanning due to high IO workloads or limited system resources may delay application of lifecycle management rules. See Lifecycle Management Object Scanner for more information.

--noncurrent-transition-days

Optional

The number of days an object has been non-current (i.e. replaced by a newer version of that same object) after which MinIO marks the object version as eligible for transition. MinIO transitions the object to the configured remote tier specified to the --transition-tier once the system host datetime passes that calendar date.

This option has no effect on non-versioned buckets. Requires specifying --noncurrent-transition-tier.

This option has the same behavior as the S3 NoncurrentVersionTransition action.

MinIO uses a scanner process to check objects against all configured lifecycle management rules. Slow scanning due to high IO workloads or limited system resources may delay application of lifecycle management rules. See Lifecycle Management Object Scanner for more information.

--noncurrent-transition-tier

Optional

The remote tier to which MinIO transitions noncurrent objects versions. Specify a remote tier created by mc ilm tier add.

--noncurrent-expire-newer

Optional

The maximum number of non-current object versions to retain, ordered from newest to oldest.

Use this flag to retain a certain number of past versions of a file in a first in, first out fashion. After retaining the maximum number of non-current versions, MinIO marks any remaining older non-current object versions as eligible for expiration.

The following table lists a number of object versions and their expiration eligibility based on --noncurrent-expire-newer 3:

v5 (current version)	Current version not affected by ILM rules.
v4	retained
v3	retained
v2	retained
v1	marked for expiry

MinIO retains the current version, v5. MinIO also retains the next 3 non-current versions, starting with the newest. This means MinIO marks v4, v3, and v2 for the three non-current version to retain.

v1 would be a fourth non-current version, which falls outside the limit of non-current versions to retain, so MinIO marks v1 for expiration.

Updating the number for this flag only impacts the unmarked versions of objects. Any versions already marked for expiration do not change if you increase the number to retain.

MinIO uses a scanner process to check objects against all configured lifecycle management rules. Slow scanning due to high IO workloads or limited system resources may delay application of lifecycle management rules. See Lifecycle Management Object Scanner for more information.

--size-gt

Optional

New in version mc: RELEASE.2023-12-02T02-03-28Z

Select objects larger than the specified value. Enter the value as a number and a unit, such as 5GiB for 5 gibibytes.

Valid units include:

Suffix	Unit Size
k	KB (Kilobyte, 1000 Bytes)
m	MB (Megabyte, 1000 Kilobytes)
g	GB (Gigabyte, 1000 Megabytes)
t	TB (Terrabyte, 1000 Gigabytes)
ki	KiB (Kibibyte, 1024 Bites)
mi	MiB (Mebibyte, 1024 Kibibytes)
gi	GiB (Gibibyte, 1024 Mebibytes)
ti	TiB (Tebibyte, 1024 Gibibytes)

--size-lt

Optional

New in version mc: RELEASE.2023-12-02T02-03-28Z

Select objects smaller than the specified value. Enter the value as a number and a unit, such as 1M for 1 megabyte.

Valid units include:

Suffix	Unit Size
k	KB (Kilobyte, 1000 Bytes)
m	MB (Megabyte, 1000 Kilobytes)
g	GB (Gigabyte, 1000 Megabytes)
t	TB (Terrabyte, 1000 Gigabytes)
ki	KiB (Kibibyte, 1024 Bites)
mi	MiB (Mebibyte, 1024 Kibibytes)
gi	GiB (Gibibyte, 1024 Mebibytes)
ti	TiB (Tebibyte, 1024 Gibibytes)

Global Flags

This command supports any of the global flags.

Expire All Bucket Contents After Number of Days

Use mc ilm rule add with the --expire-all-object-versions and --expire-days flags to mark all current and non-current bucket contents for expiration after a number of days pass from the object’s creation:

mc ilm rule add ALIAS/PATH --expire-all-object-versions --expire-days "DAYS"

• Replace ALIAS with the alias of the S3-compatible host.

• Replace PATH with the path to the bucket on the S3-compatible host.

• Replace DAYS with the number of days after which to expire each object. For example, specify 30 to expire objects 30 days after creation.

Transition Non-Current Object Versions at a Prefix to a Different Tier

Use the mc ilm rule add with --prefix and --transition-tier to transition older non-current versions of an object to a different storage tier.

mc ilm rule add --prefix "doc/" --transition-days "90" --transition-tier "MINIOTIER-1"  \
       --noncurrent-transition-days "45" --noncurrent-transition-tier "MINIOTIER-2"    \
       myminio/mybucket

This command looks at the contents with the doc/ prefix in the mybucket bucket on the myminio deployment.

• Current objects in the prefix older than 90 days move to the MINIOTIER-1 storage tier.

• Non-current objects in the prefix older than 45 days move to the MINIOTIER-2 storage tier.

• Both MINIOTIER-1 and MINIOTIER-2 have already been created with mc admin tier add.

Expire All Objects at a Prefix, Retain Current Object Versions Longer Than Non-Current Object Versions

Use the mc ilm rule add command with --prefix, --expire-days, and --noncurrent-expire-days to expire current and non-current versions of an object at different times.

mc ilm rule add --prefix "doc/" --expire-days "300" --noncurrent-expire-days "100" myminio/mybucket

This command looks at the contents with the doc/ prefix in the mybucket bucket on the myminio deployment.

• Current objects expire after 300 days.

• Non-current objects expire after 100 days.

Transition noncurrent versions in the prefix /doc with a size greater the 1MiB

Use the mc ilm rule add command with --prefix, --size-gt, and --noncurrent-expire-days to expire current and non-current versions of an object at different times.

mc ilm rule add --prefix "doc/" --size-gt 1MiB --transition-days "90" --transition-tier "MINIOTIER-1" \
      --noncurrent-transition-days "45" --noncurrent-transition-tier "MINIOTIER-1" \
      myminio/mybucket/

This command looks at the contents with the doc/ prefix in the mybucket bucket on the myminio deployment.

The command selects the following objects:

• Current objects older than 90 days larger than 1MiB.

• Non-current objects older than 45 days larger than 1MiB.

Selected objects transition to MINIOTIER-1.

Remove Delete Markers

The following command removes delete markers for objects where the delete marker is the only version of the object that remains.

mc ilm rule add ALIAS/PATH --expire-delete-marker

• Replace ALIAS with the alias of the S3-compatible host.

• Replace PATH with the path to the bucket on the S3-compatible host.

Lifecycle Management Object Scanner

MinIO uses a scanner process to check objects against all configured lifecycle management rules. Slow scanning due to high IO workloads or limited system resources may delay application of lifecycle management rules. See Lifecycle Management Object Scanner for more information.

Expiry vs Transition

MinIO supports specifying both expiry and transition rules in the same bucket or bucket prefix. MinIO can execute an expiration rule on an object regardless of its transition status. Use mc ilm rule ls to review the currently configured object lifecycle management rules for any potential interactions between expiry and transition rules.

Expire All Versions of a Deleted Object

Starting with MinIO Server RELEASE.2024-05-01T01-11-10Z, MinIO supports deleting all versions of an object that has a delete marker as its latest version. MinIO only supports this function with JSON.

To add this function, first export the rule to modify with mc ilm rule export. Modify the file you exported the rule to with additional JSON that resembles the following:

<DelMarkerObjectExpiration>
    <Days> 10 </Days>
</DelMarkerObjectExpiration>

This example JSON expires all versions of the deleted object after 10 days. Modify the value in the <Days> element to the number of days you want to wait after deleting or expiring the object.

S3 Compatibility

The mc commandline tool is built for compatibility with the AWS S3 API and is tested with MinIO and AWS S3 for expected functionality and behavior.

MinIO provides no guarantees for other S3-compatible services, as their S3 API implementation is unknown and therefore unsupported. While mc commands may work as documented, any such usage is at your own risk.