Working with the root container
A root container serves as a default container for your storage account. A storage account may have one root container. The root container must be explicitly created and must be named $root
.
A blob stored in the root container may be addressed without referencing the root container name, so that a blob can be addressed at the top level of the storage account hierarchy. For example, you can reference a blob that resides in the root container in the following manner:
https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mywebpage.html
Managing the Root Container
To use the root container with your storage account, create a new container named $root
. The following sample request shows how to create the root container:
Request Syntax:
PUT https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/$root?restype=container HTTP/1.1
Request Headers:
x-ms-version: 2011-08-18
x-ms-date: Sun, 25 Sep 2011 22:50:32 GMT
x-ms-meta-Name: StorageSample
x-ms-blob-public-access: container
Authorization: SharedKey myaccount:Z5043vY9MesKNh0PNtksNc9nbXSSqGHueE00JdjidOQ=
You can also delete the root container if you no longer have a need for it.
Like other containers, the root container can be made available for anonymous public access. You can make the container public by setting the x-ms-blob-public-access
header when the container is created, or by calling Set Container ACL after it already exists. See Restrict Access to Containers and Blobs for more information.
If the root container is present, it will appear when you perform the List Containers operation against the storage account.
When you perform a List Blobs operation against the root container, the root container does not appear in the resource URLs for the blobs returned. The following request syntax shows how to call List Blobs
against the root container:
GET https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/$root?restype=container&comp=list HTTP/1.1
Important
A blob in the root container cannot include a forward slash (/) in its name.
Examples
The following examples show how to work with container and blob resources, including the root container:
GET Operations
To list the containers in a storage account:
GET https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/?comp=list
To get a container's properties:
GET/HEAD https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer?restype=container
To list the blobs in a container named mycontainer
:
GET https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer?restype=container&comp=list
To list the blobs in the root container:
GET https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/$root?restype=container&comp=list
To read a blob named myfile
from a container named mycontainer
:
GET https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myfile
To read a blob named myphoto
from the root container:
GET https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/myphoto
You can also explicitly reference the root container:
GET https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/$root/myphoto
To read blob metadata on a blob in the root container:
GET https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/myphoto?comp=metadata
You can also explicitly reference the root container:
GET https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/$root/myphoto?comp=metadata
Note
Be careful to avoid including a trailing forward slash (/) when referencing a blob under the root container. For example, a URL such as the following now results in status code 400 (Bad Request):
https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/myblob/
In the above example, the Blob service reads the container name as myblob
and expects to see a blob name after the trailing slash. The request is malformed due to the missing blob name.
The following URL is valid for an operation on a blob in the root container:
https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/myblob
PUT Operations
To create a container named mycontainer
:
PUT https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer?restype=container
To create a blob named myblob
in the root container:
PUT https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/myblob
You can also explicitly specify the root container:
PUT https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/$root/myblob
To create a blob named myblob
in a container named mycontainer
:
PUT https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myblob
To create a blob named photos/myphoto
in a container named mycontainer
:
PUT https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/photos/myphoto
To set metadata on a blob named myblob
in the root container:
PUT https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/myblob?comp=metadata
DELETE Operations
To delete a container named mycontainer
:
DELETE https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer?restype=container
To delete the root container:
DELETE https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/$root?restype=container
To delete the blob myblob
from the root container:
DELETE https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/myblob
You can also explicitly specify the root container:
DELETE https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/$root/myblob
See Also
HTTP Operations on Blob Service Resources
Naming and Referencing Containers, Blobs, and Metadata
Versioning for the Azure Storage Services