Get Directory Properties
The Get Directory Properties
operation returns all system properties for the specified directory, and it can also be used to check the existence of a directory. The returned data doesn't include the files in the directory or any subdirectories. This operation is supported in version 2025-05-05 and later for File Shares with NFS protocol enabled.
Enabled file share protocol | Available |
---|---|
SMB | ![]() |
NFS | ![]() |
The Get Directory Properties
request is constructed as follows. We recommend that you use HTTPS.
Method | Request URI | HTTP version |
---|---|---|
GET/HEAD | https://myaccount.file.core.windows.net/myshare/myparentdirectorypath/mydirectory?restype=directory |
HTTP/1.1 |
GET/HEAD | https://myaccount.file.core.windows.net/myshare/myparentdirectorypath/mydirectory?restype=directory&sharesnapshot=<DateTime> |
HTTP/1.1 |
Replace the path components that are 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. |
myparentdirectorypath |
Optional. The path to the parent directory. |
mydirectory |
The name of the directory. |
For information about path naming restrictions, see Name and reference shares, directories, files, and metadata.
The following additional parameters can be specified on the request URI:
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
sharesnapshot |
Optional. Version 2017-04-17 and later. The sharesnapshot parameter is an opaque DateTime value that, when present, specifies the share snapshot to query for the directory properties |
timeout |
Optional. The timeout parameter is expressed in seconds. For more information, see Set time-outs for Azure Files operations. |
The required and optional request headers are described in the following tables:
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. Specifies the version of the operation to use for this request. This operation is supported in version 2025-05-05 and later for File Shares with NFS protocol enabled. 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-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're 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. This header is ignored if the target is located on a File Share with NFS protocol enabled, which supports trailing dot by default. For more information, see Naming and referencing shares, directories, files, and metadata. |
None.
None.
None.
HEAD https://myaccount.file.core.windows.net/myshare/myparentdirectorypath/mydirectory?restype=directory HTTP/1.1
Request Headers:
x-ms-version: 2015-02-21
x-ms-date: <date>
Authorization: SharedKey myaccount:Z5043vY9MesKNh0PNtksNc9nbXSSqGHueE00JdjidOQ=
The response includes an HTTP status code and a set of response headers.
A successful operation returns status code 200 (OK). For information about status codes, see Status and error codes.
The response for this operation includes the headers in the following tables. The response can also include additional standard HTTP headers. All standard headers conform to the HTTP/1.1 protocol specification.
Response header | Description |
---|---|
ETag |
The ETag contains a value that you can use to perform operations conditionally. The value is enclosed in quotation marks. |
Last-Modified |
Returns the date and time when the directory was last modified. The date format follows RFC 1123. For more information, see Represent date/time values in headers. Operations on files within the directory don't affect the last modified time of the directory. |
x-ms-meta-name:value |
A set of name-value pairs that contain metadata for the directory. |
x-ms-request-id |
Returns the unique identifier of the request, which can help you troubleshoot the request. For more information, see Troubleshoot API operations. |
x-ms-version |
Indicates the service version that was used to execute the request. |
Date |
A UTC date/time value that's generated by the service, which indicates the time when the response was initiated. |
x-ms-server-encrypted: true/false |
Version 2017-04-17 and later. The value of this header is set to true if the directory metadata is completely encrypted using the specified algorithm. If the metadata isn't encrypted, the value is set to false . |
x-ms-file-creation-time |
Version 2019-02-02 and later. The UTC date/time value that represents the creation time property for a directory. |
x-ms-file-last-write-time |
Version 2019-02-02 and later. The UTC date/time value that represents the last write time property for the directory. |
x-ms-file-change-time |
Version 2019-02-02 and later. The UTC date/time value that represents the change time property for the directory. |
x-ms-file-file-id |
Version 2019-02-02 and later. The file ID of the directory. |
x-ms-file-parent-id |
Version 2019-02-02 and later. The parent file ID of the directory. |
x-ms-client-request-id |
Can be used to troubleshoot requests and their 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 and the value contains no more than 1,024 visible ASCII characters. If the x-ms-client-request-id header isn't present in the request, it isn't present in the response. |
Response header | Description |
---|---|
x-ms-file-permission-key |
Version 2019-02-02 and later. The key of the permission of the directory. |
x-ms-file-attributes |
Version 2019-02-02 and later. The file system attributes on the directory. For more information, see the list of available attributes. |
Response header | Description |
---|---|
x-ms-mode |
Version 2025-05-05 and later. The mode of the directory. See POSIX file permissions (mode). |
x-ms-owner |
Version 2025-05-05 and later. The user identifier (UID) of the directory owner. |
x-ms-group |
Version 2025-05-05 and later. The group identifier (GID) of the directory owner. |
x-ms-file-file-type |
Version 2025-05-05 and later. The type of the file, the possible values are: Directory . |
None.
Response Status:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Response Headers:
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Date: <date>
ETag: "0x8CAFB82EFF70C46"
Last-Modified: <date>
x-ms-version: 2015-02-21
Server: Windows-Azure-File/1.0 Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
Only the account owner can call this operation.
Attribute | Win32 file attribute | Definition |
---|---|---|
ReadOnly | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY | A file that's read-only. Applications can read the file, but can't write to it or delete it. |
Hidden | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN | The file is hidden. It isn't included in an ordinary directory listing. |
System | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SYSTEM | A file that the operating system uses a part of, or uses exclusively. |
None | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL | A file that doesn't have other attributes set. This attribute is valid only when it's used alone. |
Archive | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE | A file that's an archive file. Applications ordinarily use this attribute to mark files for backup or removal. |
Temporary | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TEMPORARY | A file that's being used for temporary storage. |
Offline | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_OFFLINE | The data of a file isn't available immediately. This file system attribute is presented primarily to provide compatibility with Windows. Azure Files doesn't support offline storage options. |
NotContentIndexed | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NOT_CONTENT_INDEXED | The file isn't to be indexed by the content indexing service. |
NoScrubData | FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NO_SCRUB_DATA | The user data stream isn't to be read by the background data integrity scanner. This file system attribute is presented primarily to provide compatibility with Windows. |
POSIX file permissions can be specified either numerically in a 12-bit numeric octal format or in a symbolic "rwx" format. Examples:
- "0644" or "rw-r--r--": User (file owner) has read, write permission. Group has read permission. Others have read permission.
- "0755" or "rwxr-xr-x": User (file owner) has read, write, and execute permission. Group has read and execute permission. Others have read and execute permission.
The three lowest order octal numbers represent the permissions for owner/user, group, and others and are indicated using an octal number (0-7), formed using a bitwise combination of '4' (Read), '2' (Write), '1' (Execute). The highest order octal number (0-7) is used to indicate a combination of '4' (SetUID), '2' (SetGID), '1' (StickyBit) permissions.
Format | Permission |
---|---|
0700 | User (file owner) has read, write, and execute permission. |
0400 | User has read permission. |
0200 | User has write permission. |
0100 | User has execute permission. |
0070 | Group has read, write, and execute permission. |
0040 | Group has read permission. |
0020 | Group has write permission. |
0010 | Group has execute permission. |
0007 | Others have read, write, and execute permission. |
0004 | Others have read permission. |
0002 | Others have write permission. |
0001 | Others have execute permission. |
4000 | Set effective user ID on file. |
2000 | Set effective group ID on file. |
1000 | Set to indicate that the file can be deleted or renamed only by file owner, directory owner, or root user. |
Permissions for owner/user, group, and others are indicated using a combination of 'r' (Read), 'w' (Write), and 'x' (Execute) characters.
Format | Permission |
---|---|
rwx------ | User (file owner) has read, write, and execute permission. |
r-------- | User has read permission. |
-w------- | User has write permission. |
--x------ | User has execute permission. |
---rwx--- | Group has read, write, and execute permission. |
---r----- | Group has read permission. |
----w---- | Group has write permission. |
-----x--- | Group has execute permission. |
------rwx | Others have read, write, and execute permission. |
------r-- | Others have read permission. |
-------w- | Others have write permission. |
--------x | Others have execute permission. |
If the specified directory path doesn't exist, the request fails with status code 404 (Not Found).