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Versioning

The Versioning card on the bucket’s Settings tab shows the current state and offers Enable and Suspend.
A bucket sits in one of three states:
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never configured
The bucket has no versioning history. On the S3 wire this is reported by omitting the status element entirely, which is how S3 itself reports it.
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every write creates a version
Deletes write a delete marker instead of removing bytes. GET /v1/buckets/{bucket}/object-versions lists versions and delete markers together.
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was on, now off
Existing versions are kept; new writes stop creating them. This is distinct from disabled, and the distinction matters: suspending does not delete history.
The storage API uses the platform’s lowercase vocabulary; the S3 endpoint spells the same states Enabled and Suspended in its XML. Either spelling is accepted on input.
Versions you no longer need are not free — they count against your stored bytes. Pair versioning with a noncurrent_version_expiration lifecycle rule, or a suspended bucket quietly keeps every version it ever made.

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Object Lock and retention

On a bucket created with object_lock_enabled, individual objects can carry a retention mode and a retain-until date, set at upload with X-Amz-Object-Lock-Mode and X-Amz-Object-Lock-Retain-Until-Date, or afterwards through the ?retention sub-resource.

GOVERNANCE

Retention can be shortened or a locked object deleted, but only by a caller who sends X-Amz-Bypass-Governance-Retention: true and holds storage:BypassGovernanceRetention on the object.

COMPLIANCE

Nothing bypasses it. A ?retention write that would move the date earlier is refused, so retention can only ever be extended.
A legal hold (?legal-hold) is independent of the retention date: while it is on, the object cannot be deleted regardless of when retention expires. A delete blocked by either shows up as 403, not a silent no-op. In the console both live on the object itself: its Properties tab has a Retention card (Mode, Retain until) and a Legal hold switch, and Save changes applies them together. Shortening a GOVERNANCE date offers the bypass as a switch rather than making you send the header. The upload page has no object-lock fields, though, so setting retention at upload is API only.