Get Directory Metadata
The Get Directory Metadata operation returns all user-defined metadata for the specified directory. This operation is supported in version 2015-02-21 and later for File Shares with SMB protocol enabled, and supported in version 2025-05-05 and later for File Shares with NFS protocol enabled.
Protocol availability
| Enabled file share protocol | Available |
|---|---|
| SMB |  |
| NFS | |
Request
The Get Directory Metadata 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&comp=metadata |
HTTP/1.1 |
| GET/HEAD | https://myaccount.file.core.windows.net/myshare/ myparentdirectorypath/mydirectory?restype=directory&comp=metadata&sharesnapshot=<DateTime> |
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 information about path naming restrictions, see Name and Reference shares, directories, files, and metadata.
URI parameters
The following additional parameters may 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 it's present, specifies the share snapshot to query for the directory metadata. |
timeout |
Optional. The timeout parameter is expressed in seconds. For more information, see Set time-outs for Azure Files operations. |
Request headers
The required and optional request headers are described in the following tables:
Common 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. This operation is supported in version 2015-02-21 and later for File Shares with SMB protocol enabled, and 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 |
Can be used 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 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. |
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. 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. |
SMB only request headers
None.
NFS only request headers
None.
Request body
None.
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 headers in the following tables. The response may also include additional standard HTTP headers. All standard headers conform to the HTTP/1.1 protocol specification.
Common response headers
| 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 the directory was last modified. The date format follows RFC 1123. For more information, see Represent date/time values in headers. Any operation that modifies the directory or its properties updates the last modified time. Operations on files 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 |
Uniquely identifies the request that was made, and it can be used to 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-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, this header isn't present in the response. |
SMB only response headers
None.
NFS only response headers
None.
Response body
None.
Sample response
Response Status:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Response Headers:
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
x-ms-type: Directory
x-ms-meta-m1: v1
x-ms-meta-m2: v2
Date: <date>
ETag: "0x8CAFB82EFF70C46"
Last-Modified: <date>
x-ms-version: 2015-02-21
Server: Windows-Azure-File/1.0 Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
Authorization
Only the account owner may call this operation.