Delete Directory
The Delete Directory operation removes the specified empty directory. Note that the directory must be empty before it can be deleted.
Protocol availability
| Enabled file share protocol | Available |
|---|---|
| SMB |  |
| NFS |  |
Request
You can construct the Delete Directory request as follows. HTTPS is recommended.
| Method | Request URI | HTTP version |
|---|---|---|
DELETE |
https://myaccount.file.core.windows.net/myshare/myparentdirectorypath/mydirectory?restype=directory |
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. |
myparentdirectorypath |
Optional. The path to the parent directory. |
mydirectory |
The name of 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 parameter on the request URI.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
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. 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-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.
Sample request
Request Syntax:
DELETE https://myaccount.file.core.windows.net/myshare/myparentdirectorypath/mydirectory?restype=directory HTTP/1.1
Request Headers:
x-ms-version: 2014-02-14
x-ms-date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 22:50:32 GMT
Authorization: SharedKey myaccount:Z5043vY9MesKNh0PNtksNc9nbXSSqGHueE00JdjidOQ=
Response
The response includes an HTTP status code and a set of response headers.
Status code
A successful operation returns status code 202 (Accepted). 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 |
|---|---|
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 |
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 1,024 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
None.
Sample response
Response Status:
HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted
Response Headers:
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: application/xml
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 21:45:00 GMT
x-ms-version: 2014-02-14
Server: Windows-Azure-File/1.0 Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
Authorization
Only the account owner can call this operation.
Remarks
If you attempt to delete directories that aren't empty, the service returns error 409 (Directory Not Empty).
After a client has received status code 202 (Accepted), then the directory has been removed from the system, and is eligible to be re-created. Subsequent calls to Get Directory Properties result in error 404 (Not Found).
Delete Directory isn't supported on a share snapshot, which is a read-only copy of a share. If you attempt to perform this operation on a share snapshot, the service returns error 400 (Invalid Query Parameter Value).