delete folder from s3 nodejs - amazon-web-services

Question

Hey guys I was trying to delete a folder from s3 with stuff in it but deleteObjects wasn't working so I found this script online and it works great my question is why does it work? Why do you have to listObjects when deleting a folder on s3 why cant I just pass it the objects name? Why doesn't It error when I attempt to delete the folder without listing the objects first.
first attempt (doesnt work)
var filePath2 = "templates/" + key + "/test/";
var toPush = { Key: filePath2 };
deleteParams.Delete.Objects.push(toPush);
console.log("deleteParams", deleteParams);
console.log("deleteParams.Delete", deleteParams.Delete);
const deleteResult = await s3.deleteObjects(deleteParams).promise();
console.log("deleteResult", deleteResult);
keep in mind folderPath2 is a folder that has other stuff in it I get no error but yet the catch isn't triggered and it says deleted and than the folder name.
second attempt (works)
async function deleteFromS3(bucket, path) {
const listParams = {
Bucket: bucket,
Prefix: path
};
const listedObjects = await s3.listObjectsV2(listParams).promise();
console.log("listedObjects", listedObjects);
if (listedObjects.Contents.length === 0) return;
const deleteParams = {
Bucket: bucket,
Delete: { Objects: [] }
};
listedObjects.Contents.forEach(({ Key }) => {
deleteParams.Delete.Objects.push({ Key });
});
console.log("deleteParams", deleteParams);
const deleteResult = await s3.deleteObjects(deleteParams).promise();
console.log("deleteResult", deleteResult);
if (listedObjects.IsTruncated && deleteResult)
await deleteFromS3(bucket, path);
}
than I call the function like so
const result = await deleteFromS3(myBucketName, folderPath);

Answer 1

Folders do not exist in Amazon S3. It is a flat object storage system, where the filename (Key) for each object contains the full path.
While Amazon S3 does support the concept of a Common Prefix, which can make things appear as though they are in folders/directories, folders do not actually exist.
For example, you could run a command like this:
aws s3 cp foo.txt s3://my-bucket/folder1/folder2/foo.txt
This would work even if the folders do not exist! It is merely storing an object with a Key of folder1/folder2/foo.txt.
If you were then to delete that object, the 'folder' would disappear because no object has it as a path. That is because the folder never actually existed.
Sometimes people want an empty folder to appear, so they create a zero-length object with the same name as the folder, eg folder1/folder2/.
So, your first program did not work because it deleted the 'folder', which has nothing to do with deleting the content of the folder (since there is no concept of 'content' of a folder).