Creating a folder

You use the HTTP PUT method to create a folder in a bucket. To create a folder, you need write permission for the bucket.

To tell HCP to create a folder instead of an object in response to a PUT request, you can do either these:

• Include a forward slash (/) or the percent-encoded equivalent (%2F) after the folder name in the request.
• Include the Content-Type header in the request with a value of x-directory.

In either case, you also need to include the Content-Length header in the request. However, HCP ignores any request body.

When you create a folder, you specify a name for it. The rules for folder names are the same as the rules for object names.

Request line

Depending on whether the bucket name is included in the hostname in the S3 compatible request, a request to create a folder has either of these formats:

• With the bucket name included in the hostname:

  PUT /folder-name[(/|%2F)] HTTP/1.1

• With the bucket name following the hostname:

  PUT /bucket-name/folder-name[(/|%2F)] HTTP/1.1

Required headers

The list below describes the headers you can use in a request to create a folder.

Authorization

Specifies user credentials or requests anonymous access.

Content-Length

Specifies the size, in bytes, of the data being stored. In a request to create a folder, the value of this header should be 0 (zero).

Even if you specify a value greater than zero for this header, no request body is sent to HCP.

Date

Specifies the date and time when the request is being made according to the requester. Normally, this is the current date and time.

The date and time must always be specified using Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

To specify the date and time, use this format:

DDD, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss (+0000|GMT)

In this format:

DDD

The three-letter abbreviation for the day of the week, with an uppercase first letter (for example, Mon).

dd

The two-digit day of the month.

MMM

The three-letter abbreviation for the month, with an uppercase first letter (for example, Feb).

yyyy

The four-digit year.

HH

The hour on a 24-hour clock.

mm

The number of minutes.

ss

The number of seconds.

For example:

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 14:27:05 +0000

All S3 compatible requests must include either a Date header or an x-amz-date header. If a request includes both headers, HCP uses the date and time in the x-amz-date header.

Host

Specifies the hostname for the request. The host name identifies either a tenant or a bucket.

For a tenant, use this format:

tenant-name.hcp-domain-name

For a bucket, use this format:

bucket-name.tenant-name.hcp-domain-name

x-amz-date

Specifies the date and time at which the request is being made according to the requester. Normally, this is the current date and time.

For the valid values for this header, see the description of the Date header above.

Optional headers

Content-Type

Specifies the Internet media type of the request body. The only valid value is x-directory.

This header is ignored if the folder name in the request ends with a forward slash (/) or the percent-encoded equivalent (%2F). Otherwise, this header is required.

Transfer-Encoding

Specifies the encoding transformation for the request body. The only valid value is chunked.

Even if you include this header in the request, no request body is sent to HCP.

Response headers

The list below describes the headers returned in response to a successful request to create a folder.

Content-length

Specifies the size, in bytes, of the response body. In response to a successful request to store an object, the value of this header is always 0 (zero).

Date

The date and time when HCP responded to the request, in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The date and time are returned in this format:

DDD dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss GMT

For example:

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:27:05 GMT

ETag

Specifies the ETag for the folder.

Even though a folder has no content, HCP returns an ETag for it. However, because folders have no content, all folders have the same ETag.

x-amz-version-id

Specifies the version ID of the object. This header is returned only while versioning is enabled for the bucket.

Status codes

The table below describes HTTP status codes that can be returned in response to a request to create a folder.