Develop Python applications that use Azure Files

Learn the basics of using Python to develop apps or services that use Azure Files to store file data. Create a console app and learn how to perform basic actions with Python and Azure Files:

• Create Azure file shares
• Create directories
• Enumerate files and directories in an Azure file share
• Upload, download, and delete a file
• Create file share backups by using snapshots

Applies to

File share type	SMB	NFS
Standard file shares (GPv2), LRS/ZRS
Standard file shares (GPv2), GRS/GZRS
Premium file shares (FileStorage), LRS/ZRS

Download and Install Azure Storage SDK for Python

The Azure Files client library for Python requires Python 3.8+.

Install via PyPI

To install via the Python Package Index (PyPI), type:

pip install azure-storage-file-share

Set up your application to use Azure Files

Add the following code near the top of a Python source file to use the code snippets in this article.

from azure.core.exceptions import (
    ResourceExistsError,
    ResourceNotFoundError
)

from azure.storage.fileshare import (
    ShareServiceClient,
    ShareClient,
    ShareDirectoryClient,
    ShareFileClient
)

Set up a connection to Azure Files

ShareServiceClient lets you work with shares, directories, and files. This code creates a ShareServiceClient object using the storage account connection string.

# Create a ShareServiceClient from a connection string
service_client = ShareServiceClient.from_connection_string(connection_string)

Create an Azure file share

The following code example uses a ShareClient object to create the share if it doesn't exist.

def create_file_share(self, connection_string, share_name):
    try:
        # Create a ShareClient from a connection string
        share_client = ShareClient.from_connection_string(
            connection_string, share_name)

        print("Creating share:", share_name)
        share_client.create_share()

    except ResourceExistsError as ex:
        print("ResourceExistsError:", ex.message)

Create a directory

You can organize storage by putting files inside subdirectories instead of having all of them in the root directory.

The following method creates a directory in the root of the specified file share by using a ShareDirectoryClient object.

def create_directory(self, connection_string, share_name, dir_name):
    try:
        # Create a ShareDirectoryClient from a connection string
        dir_client = ShareDirectoryClient.from_connection_string(
            connection_string, share_name, dir_name)

        print("Creating directory:", share_name + "/" + dir_name)
        dir_client.create_directory()

    except ResourceExistsError as ex:
        print("ResourceExistsError:", ex.message)

Upload a file

In this section, you learn how to upload a file from local storage into Azure Files.

The following method uploads the contents of the specified file into the specified directory in the specified Azure file share.

def upload_local_file(self, connection_string, local_file_path, share_name, dest_file_path):
    try:
        source_file = open(local_file_path, "rb")
        data = source_file.read()

        # Create a ShareFileClient from a connection string
        file_client = ShareFileClient.from_connection_string(
            connection_string, share_name, dest_file_path)

        print("Uploading to:", share_name + "/" + dest_file_path)
        file_client.upload_file(data)

    except ResourceExistsError as ex:
        print("ResourceExistsError:", ex.message)

    except ResourceNotFoundError as ex:
        print("ResourceNotFoundError:", ex.message)

Enumerate files and directories in an Azure file share

To list the files and directories in a subdirectory, use the list_directories_and_files method. This method returns an auto-paging iterable. The following code outputs the name of each file and subdirectory in the specified directory to the console.

def list_files_and_dirs(self, connection_string, share_name, dir_name):
    try:
        # Create a ShareClient from a connection string
        share_client = ShareClient.from_connection_string(
            connection_string, share_name)

        for item in list(share_client.list_directories_and_files(dir_name)):
            if item["is_directory"]:
                print("Directory:", item["name"])
            else:
                print("File:", dir_name + "/" + item["name"])

    except ResourceNotFoundError as ex:
        print("ResourceNotFoundError:", ex.message)

Download a file

To download data from a file, use download_file.

The following example demonstrates using download_file to get the contents of the specified file and store it locally with DOWNLOADED- prepended to the filename.

def download_azure_file(self, connection_string, share_name, dir_name, file_name):
    try:
        # Build the remote path
        source_file_path = dir_name + "/" + file_name

        # Add a prefix to the filename to 
        # distinguish it from the uploaded file
        dest_file_name = "DOWNLOADED-" + file_name

        # Create a ShareFileClient from a connection string
        file_client = ShareFileClient.from_connection_string(
            connection_string, share_name, source_file_path)

        print("Downloading to:", dest_file_name)

        # Open a file for writing bytes on the local system
        with open(dest_file_name, "wb") as data:
            # Download the file from Azure into a stream
            stream = file_client.download_file()
            # Write the stream to the local file
            data.write(stream.readall())

    except ResourceNotFoundError as ex:
        print("ResourceNotFoundError:", ex.message)

Create a share snapshot

You can create a point in time copy of your entire file share.

def create_snapshot(self, connection_string, share_name):
    try:
        # Create a ShareClient from a connection string
        share_client = ShareClient.from_connection_string(
            connection_string, share_name)

        # Create a snapshot
        snapshot = share_client.create_snapshot()
        print("Created snapshot:", snapshot["snapshot"])

        # Return the snapshot time so 
        # it can be accessed later
        return snapshot["snapshot"]

    except ResourceNotFoundError as ex:
        print("ResourceNotFoundError:", ex.message)

List shares and snapshots

You can list all the snapshots for a particular share.

def list_shares_snapshots(self, connection_string):
    try:
        # Create a ShareServiceClient from a connection string
        service_client = ShareServiceClient.from_connection_string(connection_string)

        # List the shares in the file service
        shares = list(service_client.list_shares(include_snapshots=True))

        for share in shares:
            if (share["snapshot"]):
                print("Share:", share["name"], "Snapshot:", share["snapshot"])
            else:
                print("Share:", share["name"])

    except ResourceNotFoundError as ex:
        print("ResourceNotFoundError:", ex.message)

Browse share snapshot

You can browse each share snapshot to retrieve files and directories from that point in time.

def browse_snapshot_dir(self, connection_string, share_name, snapshot_time, dir_name):
    try:
        # Create a ShareClient from a connection string
        snapshot = ShareClient.from_connection_string(
            conn_str=connection_string, share_name=share_name, snapshot=snapshot_time)

        print("Snapshot:", snapshot_time)

        for item in list(snapshot.list_directories_and_files(dir_name)):
            if item["is_directory"]:
                print("Directory:", item["name"])
            else:
                print("File:", dir_name + "/" + item["name"])

    except ResourceNotFoundError as ex:
        print("ResourceNotFoundError:", ex.message)

Get file from share snapshot

You can download a file from a share snapshot, which enables you to restore a previous version of a file.

def download_snapshot_file(self, connection_string, share_name, snapshot_time, dir_name, file_name):
    try:
        # Build the remote path
        source_file_path = dir_name + "/" + file_name

        # Add a prefix to the local filename to 
        # indicate it's a file from a snapshot
        dest_file_name = "SNAPSHOT-" + file_name

        # Create a ShareFileClient from a connection string
        snapshot_file_client = ShareFileClient.from_connection_string(
            conn_str=connection_string, share_name=share_name, 
            file_path=source_file_path, snapshot=snapshot_time)

        print("Downloading to:", dest_file_name)

        # Open a file for writing bytes on the local system
        with open(dest_file_name, "wb") as data:
            # Download the file from Azure into a stream
            stream = snapshot_file_client.download_file()
            # Write the stream to the local file
            data.write(stream.readall())

    except ResourceNotFoundError as ex:
        print("ResourceNotFoundError:", ex.message)

Delete a single share snapshot

You can delete a single share snapshot.

def delete_snapshot(self, connection_string, share_name, snapshot_time):
    try:
        # Create a ShareClient for a snapshot
        snapshot_client = ShareClient.from_connection_string(conn_str=connection_string, share_name=share_name, snapshot=snapshot_time)

        print("Deleting snapshot:", snapshot_time)

        # Delete the snapshot
        snapshot_client.delete_share()

    except ResourceNotFoundError as ex:
        print("ResourceNotFoundError:", ex.message)

Delete a file

To delete a file, call delete_file.

def delete_azure_file(self, connection_string, share_name, file_path):
    try:
        # Create a ShareFileClient from a connection string
        file_client = ShareFileClient.from_connection_string(
            connection_string, share_name, file_path)

        print("Deleting file:", share_name + "/" + file_path)

        # Delete the file
        file_client.delete_file()

    except ResourceNotFoundError as ex:
        print("ResourceNotFoundError:", ex.message)

Delete share when share snapshots exist

To delete a share that contains snapshots, call delete_share with delete_snapshots=True.

def delete_share(self, connection_string, share_name):
    try:
        # Create a ShareClient from a connection string
        share_client = ShareClient.from_connection_string(
            connection_string, share_name)

        print("Deleting share:", share_name)

        # Delete the share and snapshots
        share_client.delete_share(delete_snapshots=True)

    except ResourceNotFoundError as ex:
        print("ResourceNotFoundError:", ex.message)

Next steps

Now that you've learned how to manipulate Azure Files with Python, follow these links to learn more.

• Python Developer Center
• Azure Storage Services REST API
• Microsoft Azure Storage SDK for Python

For related code samples using deprecated Python version 2 SDKs, see Code samples using Python version 2.