List Directories and Files

The List Directories and Files operation returns a list of files or directories under the specified share or directory. It lists the contents only for a single level of the directory hierarchy.

Protocol availability

Enabled file share protocol Available
SMB Yes
NFS No

Request

You can construct the List Directories and Files request as follows. HTTPS is recommended.

Method Request URI HTTP version
GET https://myaccount.file.core.windows.net/myshare/mydirectorypath?restype=directory&comp=list HTTP/1.1
GET https://myaccount.file.core.windows.net/myshare/mydirectorypath?restype=directory&sharesnapshot=<DateTime>&comp=list HTTP/1.1

Replace the path components shown in the request URI with your own, as follows:

Path component Description
myaccount The name of your storage account.
myshare The name of your file share.
mydirectorypath The path to the directory.

For details on path naming restrictions, see Naming and referencing shares, directories, files, and metadata.

URI parameters

You can specify the following additional parameters on the URI.

Parameter Description
prefix Optional. Version 2016-05-31 and later. Filters the results to return only files and directories that have names that begin with the specified prefix.
sharesnapshot Optional. Version 2017-04-17 and later. The share snapshot parameter is an opaque DateTime value that, when present, specifies the share snapshot to query for the list of files and directories.
marker Optional. A string value that identifies the portion of the list to be returned with the next list operation. The operation returns a marker value within the response body if the list returned wasn't complete. You can then use the marker value in a subsequent call to request the next set of list items.

The marker value is opaque to the client.
maxresults Optional. Specifies the maximum number of files or directories to return. If the request doesn't specify maxresults, or specifies a value greater than 5,000, the server will return up to 5,000 items.

Setting maxresults to a value less than or equal to zero results in error response code 400 (Bad Request).
include={Timestamps, ETag, Attributes, PermissionKey} Optionally available, starting in version 2020-04-08. Specifies one or more properties to include in the response:
  • Timestamps
  • ETag
  • Attributes (Win32 file attributes)
  • PermissionKey

To specify more than one of these options on the URI, you must separate each option with a URL-encoded comma (%82).

The header x-ms-file-extended-info is implicitly assumed to be true when this parameter is specified.
timeout Optional. The timeout parameter is expressed in seconds. For more information, see Setting timeouts for Azure Files operations.

Request headers

The following table describes required and optional request headers.

Request header Description
Authorization Required. Specifies the authorization scheme, account name, and signature. For more information, see Authorize requests to Azure Storage.
Date or x-ms-date Required. Specifies the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) for the request. For more information, see Authorize requests to Azure Storage.
x-ms-version Required for all authorized requests, optional for anonymous requests. Specifies the version of the operation to use for this request. For more information, see Versioning for the Azure Storage services.
x-ms-client-request-id Optional. Provides a client-generated, opaque value with a 1-kibibyte (KiB) character limit that's recorded in the logs when logging is configured. We highly recommend that you use this header to correlate client-side activities with requests that the server receives. For more information, see Monitor Azure Files.
x-ms-file-extended-info: {true} Optional. Version 2020-04-08 and later. This header is implicitly assumed to be true if the include query parameter isn't empty. If true, the Content-Length property will be up to date. In versions 2020-04-08, 2020-06-12, and 2020-08-04, FileId is returned for files and directories only if this header is true. In versions 2020-10-02 and later, FileId is always returned for files and directories.
x-ms-file-request-intent Required if Authorization header specifies an OAuth token. Acceptable value is backup. This header specifies that the Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/fileServices/readFileBackupSemantics/action or Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/fileServices/writeFileBackupSemantics/action should be granted if they are included in the RBAC policy assigned to the identity that is authorized using the Authorization header. Available for version 2022-11-02 and later.
x-ms-allow-trailing-dot: { <Boolean> } Optional. Version 2022-11-02 and later. The Boolean value specifies if a trailing dot present in request url should be trimmed or not. For more information, see Naming and referencing shares, directories, files, and metadata.

Request body

None.

Response

The response includes an HTTP status code, a set of response headers, and a response body in XML format.

Status code

A successful operation returns status code 200 (OK). For information about status codes, see Status and error codes.

Response headers

The response for this operation includes the following headers. The response can also include additional, standard HTTP headers. All standard headers conform to the HTTP/1.1 protocol specification.

Response header Description
Content-Type Specifies the format in which the results are returned. Currently this value is application/xml.
x-ms-request-id This header uniquely identifies the request that was made, and can be used for troubleshooting the request. For more information, see Troubleshooting API operations.
x-ms-version Indicates the version of Azure Files used to run the request.
Date or x-ms-date A UTC date/time value that indicates the time at which the response was initiated. The service generates this value.
x-ms-client-request-id You can use this header to troubleshoot requests and corresponding responses. The value of this header is equal to the value of the x-ms-client-request-id header, if it's present in the request. The value is at most 1024 visible ASCII characters. If the x-ms-client-request-id header isn't present in the request, this header won't be present in the response.

Response body

The format of the XML response is as follows.

Note that the Marker, ShareSnapshot, and MaxResults elements are present only if you specify them on the request URI. The NextMarker element has a value only if the list results aren't complete.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>  
<EnumerationResults ServiceEndpoint="https://myaccount.file.core.windows.net/" ShareName="myshare" ShareSnapshot="date-time" DirectoryPath="directory-path">  
  <Marker>string-value</Marker>
  <Prefix>string-value</Prefix>
  <MaxResults>int-value</MaxResults>
  <DirectoryId>directory-id</DirectoryId>
  <Entries>
    <File>
      <FileId>file-id</FileId>
      <Name>file-name</Name>  
      <Properties>  
        <Content-Length>size-in-bytes</Content-Length>
        <CreationTime>datetime</CreationTime>
        <LastAccessTime>datetime</LastAccessTime>
        <LastWriteTime>datetime</LastWriteTime>
        <ChangeTime>datetime</ChangeTime>
        <Last-Modified>datetime</Last-Modified>
        <Etag>etag</Etag>
      </Properties>
      <Attributes>Archive | Hidden | Offline | ReadOnly</Attributes>
      <PermissionKey>4066528134148476695*1</PermissionKey>
    </File>  
    <Directory>
      <FileId>file-id</FileId>
      <Name>directory-name</Name>  
      <Properties>
        <CreationTime>datetime</CreationTime>
        <LastAccessTime>datetime</LastAccessTime>
        <LastWriteTime>datetime</LastWriteTime>
        <ChangeTime>datetime</ChangeTime>
        <Last-Modified>datetime</Last-Modified>
        <Etag>etag</Etag>
      </Properties>
      <Attributes>Archive | Hidden | Offline | ReadOnly</Attributes>
      <PermissionKey>4066528134148476695*1</PermissionKey>
    </Directory>  
  </Entries>  
  <NextMarker />  
</EnumerationResults>  

Note that the Content-Length element is returned in the listing. However, this value might not be up-to-date, because an SMB client might have modified the file locally. The value of Content-Length might not reflect that fact until the handle is closed, or the op-lock is broken. To retrieve current property values, use x-ms-file-extended-info: true, or call Get File Properties.

In versions 2020-04-08, 2020-06-12, and 2020-08-04, FileId is returned for files and directories if the header x-ms-file-extended-info is true. In version 2020-10-02 and later, FileId is always returned for files and directories.

In version 2020-04-08, include={timestamps} returns the following timestamp properties: CreationTime, LastAccessTime, and LastWriteTime. In version 2020-06-12 and later, include={timestamps} returns the following timestamp properties: CreationTime, LastAccessTime, LastWriteTime, ChangeTime, and Last-Modified.

In version 2020-10-02 and later, DirectoryId is returned in the response. It specifies the FileId of the directory on which the API is being called.

In versions 2021-12-02 and newer, List Directory and Files will percent-encode (per RFC 2396) all File Name, Directory Name, Prefix or DirectoryPath element values which contain characters invalid in XML (specifically, U+FFFE or U+FFFF). If encoded, the Name, Prefix or EnumerationResults element will include an Encoded=true attribute. Note that this will only occur for the Name element values containing the characters invalid in XML, not the remaining Name elements in the response.

Datetime format and API version for timestamp fields

Element Datetime format Sample value API version
CreationTime ISO 8601 2020-09-17T13:38:03.2740000Z 2020-04-08 and later
LastAccessTime ISO 8601 2020-09-17T13:38:03.2740000Z 2020-04-08 and later
LastWriteTime ISO 8601 2020-09-17T13:38:03.2740000Z 2020-04-08 and later
ChangeTime ISO 8601 2020-09-17T13:38:03.2740000Z 2020-06-12 and later
Last-Modified RFC 1123 Thu, 17 Sep 2020 13:38:07 GMT 2020-06-12 and later

Authorization

Only the account owner can call this operation.

Remarks

The value returned in the Content-Length element corresponds to the value of the file's x-ms-content-length header.

Note that each Directory element returned counts toward the maximum result, just as each File element does. Files and directories are listed intermingled, in lexically sorted order in the response body.

Listing is limited to a single level of the directory hierarchy. To list multiple levels, you can make multiple calls in an iterative manner. Use the Directory value returned from one result in a subsequent call to List Directories and Files.

See also

Operations on directories