Checking the existence of a directory
You use the HTTP HEAD method to check whether a directory exists in a namespace.
Access permission
To check for directory existence, you need browse permission.
Request header
HEAD /rest/directory HTTP/1.1
The HEAD request to check the existence of a directory has these elements:
- If you’re accessing the namespace as an authenticated user, an Authorization header
Parameter | Required | Description |
directory | Yes | Folder name. |
deleted | No |
By default, the GET request to retrieve object versions does not include delete markers. To retrieve a listing that includes delete marker, specify this URL query parameter: deleted=true You can also specify |
Response headers
The table below describes the request-specific response headers for this operation.
X-HCP-Type
The object entity type.
X-HCP-ChangeTimeMilliseconds
The change time for the directory, in milliseconds since January 1, 1970, at 00:00:00 UTC, followed by an integer that is unique for the change time. For example: 1336483100178.00.
The change time for a directory is the most recent of:
- The time the directory was created
- The time the directory was deleted
- The time an object was added to the directory
- The time an object was deleted from the directory
X-HCP-ChangeTimeString
The change time for the object in this format:
yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ssZ
In this format, Z represents the offset from UTC and is specified as:
(+|-)hhmm
For example, 2020-09-18T09:18:20-0400 represents the start of the 20th second into 9:18 AM, September 18, 2020, EDT.
X-HCP-SymlinkTarget
The path to the target object as specified when the symbolic link was created.
This header is returned only if the URL specifies a symbolic link to an object.
If this header is returned, the
X-HCP-ACL
value is alwaysfalse
.
Return codes
The table below describes the HTTP return codes that have specific meaning for this request.
Code | Meaning | Description |
200 | OK | HCP found a directory or object at the specified URL. |
404 | Not Found |
One of:
|
Example: Checking the existence of a directory
Here’s a sample HTTP HEAD request that checks the existence of a directory named quarterly_rpts.
Request with curl command line
curl -k -iI -H "Authorization: HCP bXl1c2Vy:3f3c6784e97531774380db177774ac8d" "https://finance.europe.hcp.example.com/rest/quarterly_rpts"
Request in Python using PycURL
import pycurl import StringIO cin = StringIO.StringIO() curl = pycurl.Curl() curl.setopt(pycurl.HTTPHEADER, ["Authorization: HCP bXl1c2Vy:3f3c6784e97531774380db177774ac8d"]) curl.setopt(pycurl.URL, "https://finance.europe.hcp.example.com \ /rest/quarterly_rpts") curl.setopt(pycurl.SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0) curl.setopt(pycurl.SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0) curl.setopt(pycurl.HEADER, 1) curl.setopt(pycurl.NOBODY, 1) curl.setopt(pycurl.WRITEFUNCTION, cin.write) curl.perform() print curl.getinfo(pycurl.RESPONSE_CODE) print cin.getvalue() curl.close()
Request headers
HEAD /rest/quarterly_rpts HTTP/1.1 Host: finance.europe.hcp.example.com Authorization: HCP bXl1c2Vy:3f3c6784e97531774380db177774ac8d
Response headers
HTTP/1.1 200 OK X-HCP-ServicedBySystem: hcp.example.com X-HCP-Time: 1334829227 X-HCP-SoftwareVersion: 7.0.0.16 Content-Type: text/xm X-HCP-ChangeTimeMilliseconds: 1326336965436 X-HCP-ChangeTimeString: 2012-01-11T09:56:05-0500 X-HCP-Type: directory Content-Length: 0