How to move a file on Azure File Storage from one sub folder to another sub folder using the Azure Storage SDK?

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to move a file in Azure File Storage from one location to another location, in the same share.

E.g.

source -> \\Share1\someFile.txt
destination -> \\Share1\Foo\Bar\someFile.txt

• Do I need to copy the file first, then delete the source?
• What if the destination sub-directory aren't there? do I need to CreateIfNotExistsAsync for each sub-directory, first?

cheers!

Answer 1

Here is an updated answer for Asp.net Core 3+ with the new blob API's. You can use a BlockBlobClient with StartCopyFromUriAsync and if you want to await completion WaitForCompletionAsync

var blobServiceClient = new BlobServiceClient("StorageConnectionString");
var containerClient = blobServiceClient.GetBlobContainerClient(container);
var blobs = containerClient.GetBlobs(BlobTraits.None, BlobStates.None, sourceFolder);

await Task.WhenAll(blobs.Select(async blob =>
{
    var targetBlobClient = containerClient.GetBlockBlobClient($"{targetFolder}/{blob.Name}");
    var blobUri = new Uri($"{containerClient.Uri}/{blob.Name}");
    var copyOp = await targetBlobClient.StartCopyFromUriAsync(blobUri);
    return await copyOp.WaitForCompletionAsync();
}).ToArray());

Or if you don't need to wait for completion and just want to "fire and forget".

foreach (var blob in blobs)
{
    var targetBlobClient = containerClient.GetBlockBlobClient($"{targetFolder}/{blob.Name}");
    var blobUri = new Uri($"{containerClient.Uri}/{blob.Name}");
    targetBlobClient.StartCopyFromUriAsync(blobUri);
}

Answer 2

Like this:

public static void MoveTo(this CloudFile source, CloudFileDirectory directory)
{
    var target = directory.GetFileReference(source.Name);
    target.StartCopy(source);
    source.Delete();
}

Answer 3

This is documented in the Getting Started guide on Azure Storage Files reference.

What you need is the StartCopy method to copy the file from one location to another.

// Start the copy operation.
destinationFile.StartCopy(sourceFile);

And, yes, you will have to create the destination directory if it does not exist.