List objects

This page shows you how to list the objects stored in your Cloud Storage buckets, which are ordered in the list lexicographically by name.

Before you begin

To get the permissions that you need to list objects, ask your administrator to grant you the Storage Object Viewer (roles/storage.objectViewer) IAM role for the bucket that contains the objects you want to list.

If you plan on using the Google Cloud console to perform the tasks on this page, ask your administrator to grant you the Viewer (roles/viewer) basic role in addition to the Storage Object Viewer (roles/storage.objectViewer) role.

These roles contain the permissions required to list objects. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

  • storage.objects.list
  • storage.buckets.list
    • This permission is only needed if you want to use the Google Cloud console to perform the tasks on this page.

You can also get these permissions with other predefined roles or custom roles.

For information about granting roles for buckets, see Use IAM with buckets.

List the objects in a bucket

Complete the following steps to list the objects in a bucket:

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud Storage Buckets page.

    Go to Buckets

  2. In the bucket list, click the name of the bucket whose contents you want to view.

  3. Optional: Use filtering and sorting to limit and organize the results in your list.

Command line

Use the gcloud storage ls command with the --recursive flag:

gcloud storage ls --recursive gs://BUCKET_NAME/**

Where:

  • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket whose objects you want to list. For example, my-bucket.

The response looks like the following example:

gs://my-bucket/cats.jpeg
gs://my-bucket/dogs.jpeg
gs://my-bucket/thesis.txt
...

Client libraries

C++

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C++ API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

The following sample lists all objects in a bucket:

namespace gcs = ::google::cloud::storage;
[](gcs::Client client, std::string const& bucket_name) {
  for (auto&& object_metadata : client.ListObjects(bucket_name)) {
    if (!object_metadata) throw std::move(object_metadata).status();

    std::cout << "bucket_name=" << object_metadata->bucket()
              << ", object_name=" << object_metadata->name() << "\n";
  }
}

The following sample lists objects with a given prefix:

namespace gcs = ::google::cloud::storage;
[](gcs::Client client, std::string const& bucket_name,
   std::string const& bucket_prefix) {
  for (auto&& object_metadata :
       client.ListObjects(bucket_name, gcs::Prefix(bucket_prefix))) {
    if (!object_metadata) throw std::move(object_metadata).status();

    std::cout << "bucket_name=" << object_metadata->bucket()
              << ", object_name=" << object_metadata->name() << "\n";
  }
}

C#

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C# API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

The following sample lists all objects in a bucket:


using Google.Cloud.Storage.V1;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class ListFilesSample
{
    public IEnumerable<Google.Apis.Storage.v1.Data.Object> ListFiles(
        string bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name")
    {
        var storage = StorageClient.Create();
        var storageObjects = storage.ListObjects(bucketName);
        Console.WriteLine($"Files in bucket {bucketName}:");
        foreach (var storageObject in storageObjects)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(storageObject.Name);
        }

        return storageObjects;
    }
}

The following sample lists objects with a given prefix:


using Google.Cloud.Storage.V1;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class ListFilesWithPrefixSample
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Prefixes and delimiters can be used to emulate directory listings.
    /// Prefixes can be used to filter objects starting with prefix.
    /// The delimiter argument can be used to restrict the results to only the
    /// objects in the given "directory". Without the delimiter, the entire  tree
    /// under the prefix is returned.
    /// For example, given these objects:
    ///   a/1.txt
    ///   a/b/2.txt
    ///
    /// If you just specify prefix="a/", you'll get back:
    ///   a/1.txt
    ///   a/b/2.txt
    ///
    /// However, if you specify prefix="a/" and delimiter="/", you'll get back:
    ///   a/1.txt
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="bucketName">The bucket to list the objects from.</param>
    /// <param name="prefix">The prefix to match. Only objects with names that start with this string will
    /// be returned. This parameter may be null or empty, in which case no filtering
    /// is performed.</param>
    /// <param name="delimiter">Used to list in "directory mode". Only objects whose names (aside from the prefix)
    /// do not contain the delimiter will be returned.</param>
    public IEnumerable<Google.Apis.Storage.v1.Data.Object> ListFilesWithPrefix(
        string bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name",
        string prefix = "your-prefix",
        string delimiter = "your-delimiter")
    {
        var storage = StorageClient.Create();
        var options = new ListObjectsOptions { Delimiter = delimiter };
        var storageObjects = storage.ListObjects(bucketName, prefix, options);
        Console.WriteLine($"Objects in bucket {bucketName} with prefix {prefix}:");
        foreach (var storageObject in storageObjects)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(storageObject.Name);
        }
        return storageObjects;
    }
}

Go

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Go API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

The following sample lists all objects in a bucket:

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"time"

	"cloud.google.com/go/storage"
	"google.golang.org/api/iterator"
)

// listFiles lists objects within specified bucket.
func listFiles(w io.Writer, bucket string) error {
	// bucket := "bucket-name"
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := storage.NewClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("storage.NewClient: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, time.Second*10)
	defer cancel()

	it := client.Bucket(bucket).Objects(ctx, nil)
	for {
		attrs, err := it.Next()
		if err == iterator.Done {
			break
		}
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("Bucket(%q).Objects: %w", bucket, err)
		}
		fmt.Fprintln(w, attrs.Name)
	}
	return nil
}

The following sample lists objects with a given prefix:

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"time"

	"cloud.google.com/go/storage"
	"google.golang.org/api/iterator"
)

// listFilesWithPrefix lists objects using prefix and delimeter.
func listFilesWithPrefix(w io.Writer, bucket, prefix, delim string) error {
	// bucket := "bucket-name"
	// prefix := "/foo"
	// delim := "_"
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := storage.NewClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("storage.NewClient: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	// Prefixes and delimiters can be used to emulate directory listings.
	// Prefixes can be used to filter objects starting with prefix.
	// The delimiter argument can be used to restrict the results to only the
	// objects in the given "directory". Without the delimiter, the entire tree
	// under the prefix is returned.
	//
	// For example, given these blobs:
	//   /a/1.txt
	//   /a/b/2.txt
	//
	// If you just specify prefix="a/", you'll get back:
	//   /a/1.txt
	//   /a/b/2.txt
	//
	// However, if you specify prefix="a/" and delim="/", you'll get back:
	//   /a/1.txt
	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, time.Second*10)
	defer cancel()

	it := client.Bucket(bucket).Objects(ctx, &storage.Query{
		Prefix:    prefix,
		Delimiter: delim,
	})
	for {
		attrs, err := it.Next()
		if err == iterator.Done {
			break
		}
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("Bucket(%q).Objects(): %w", bucket, err)
		}
		fmt.Fprintln(w, attrs.Name)
	}
	return nil
}

Java

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

The following sample lists all objects in a bucket:

import com.google.api.gax.paging.Page;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Blob;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Storage;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageOptions;

public class ListObjects {
  public static void listObjects(String projectId, String bucketName) {
    // The ID of your GCP project
    // String projectId = "your-project-id";

    // The ID of your GCS bucket
    // String bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name";

    Storage storage = StorageOptions.newBuilder().setProjectId(projectId).build().getService();
    Page<Blob> blobs = storage.list(bucketName);

    for (Blob blob : blobs.iterateAll()) {
      System.out.println(blob.getName());
    }
  }
}

The following sample lists objects with a given prefix:

import com.google.api.gax.paging.Page;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Blob;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Storage;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageOptions;

public class ListObjectsWithPrefix {
  public static void listObjectsWithPrefix(
      String projectId, String bucketName, String directoryPrefix) {
    // The ID of your GCP project
    // String projectId = "your-project-id";

    // The ID of your GCS bucket
    // String bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name";

    // The directory prefix to search for
    // String directoryPrefix = "myDirectory/"

    Storage storage = StorageOptions.newBuilder().setProjectId(projectId).build().getService();
    /**
     * Using the Storage.BlobListOption.currentDirectory() option here causes the results to display
     * in a "directory-like" mode, showing what objects are in the directory you've specified, as
     * well as what other directories exist in that directory. For example, given these blobs:
     *
     * <p>a/1.txt a/b/2.txt a/b/3.txt
     *
     * <p>If you specify prefix = "a/" and don't use Storage.BlobListOption.currentDirectory(),
     * you'll get back:
     *
     * <p>a/1.txt a/b/2.txt a/b/3.txt
     *
     * <p>However, if you specify prefix = "a/" and do use
     * Storage.BlobListOption.currentDirectory(), you'll get back:
     *
     * <p>a/1.txt a/b/
     *
     * <p>Because a/1.txt is the only file in the a/ directory and a/b/ is a directory inside the
     * /a/ directory.
     */
    Page<Blob> blobs =
        storage.list(
            bucketName,
            Storage.BlobListOption.prefix(directoryPrefix),
            Storage.BlobListOption.currentDirectory());

    for (Blob blob : blobs.iterateAll()) {
      System.out.println(blob.getName());
    }
  }
}

Node.js

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Node.js API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

The following sample lists all objects in a bucket:

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following lines before running the sample.
 */
// The ID of your GCS bucket
// const bucketName = 'your-unique-bucket-name';

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {Storage} = require('@google-cloud/storage');

// Creates a client
const storage = new Storage();

async function listFiles() {
  // Lists files in the bucket
  const [files] = await storage.bucket(bucketName).getFiles();

  console.log('Files:');
  files.forEach(file => {
    console.log(file.name);
  });
}

listFiles().catch(console.error);

The following sample lists objects with a given prefix:

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following lines before running the sample.
 */
// The ID of your GCS bucket
// const bucketName = 'your-unique-bucket-name';

// The directory prefix to search for
// const prefix = 'myDirectory/';

// The delimiter to use
// const delimiter = '/';

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {Storage} = require('@google-cloud/storage');

// Creates a client
const storage = new Storage();

async function listFilesByPrefix() {
  /**
   * This can be used to list all blobs in a "folder", e.g. "public/".
   *
   * The delimiter argument can be used to restrict the results to only the
   * "files" in the given "folder". Without the delimiter, the entire tree under
   * the prefix is returned. For example, given these blobs:
   *
   *   /a/1.txt
   *   /a/b/2.txt
   *
   * If you just specify prefix = 'a/', you'll get back:
   *
   *   /a/1.txt
   *   /a/b/2.txt
   *
   * However, if you specify prefix='a/' and delimiter='/', you'll get back:
   *
   *   /a/1.txt
   */
  const options = {
    prefix: prefix,
  };

  if (delimiter) {
    options.delimiter = delimiter;
  }

  // Lists files in the bucket, filtered by a prefix
  const [files] = await storage.bucket(bucketName).getFiles(options);

  console.log('Files:');
  files.forEach(file => {
    console.log(file.name);
  });
}

listFilesByPrefix().catch(console.error);

PHP

For more information, see the Cloud Storage PHP API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

The following sample lists all objects in a bucket:

use Google\Cloud\Storage\StorageClient;

/**
 * List Cloud Storage bucket objects.
 *
 * @param string $bucketName The name of your Cloud Storage bucket.
 *        (e.g. 'my-bucket')
 */
function list_objects(string $bucketName): void
{
    $storage = new StorageClient();
    $bucket = $storage->bucket($bucketName);
    foreach ($bucket->objects() as $object) {
        printf('Object: %s' . PHP_EOL, $object->name());
    }
}

The following sample lists objects with a given prefix:

use Google\Cloud\Storage\StorageClient;

/**
 * List Cloud Storage bucket objects with specified prefix.
 *
 * @param string $bucketName The name of your Cloud Storage bucket.
 *        (e.g. 'my-bucket')
 * @param string $directoryPrefix the prefix to use in the list objects API call.
 *        (e.g. 'myDirectory/')
 */
function list_objects_with_prefix(string $bucketName, string $directoryPrefix): void
{
    $storage = new StorageClient();
    $bucket = $storage->bucket($bucketName);
    $options = ['prefix' => $directoryPrefix];
    foreach ($bucket->objects($options) as $object) {
        printf('Object: %s' . PHP_EOL, $object->name());
    }
}

Python

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Python API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

The following sample lists all objects in a bucket:

from google.cloud import storage


def list_blobs(bucket_name):
    """Lists all the blobs in the bucket."""
    # bucket_name = "your-bucket-name"

    storage_client = storage.Client()

    # Note: Client.list_blobs requires at least package version 1.17.0.
    blobs = storage_client.list_blobs(bucket_name)

    # Note: The call returns a response only when the iterator is consumed.
    for blob in blobs:
        print(blob.name)

The following sample lists objects with a given prefix:

from google.cloud import storage


def list_blobs_with_prefix(bucket_name, prefix, delimiter=None):
    """Lists all the blobs in the bucket that begin with the prefix.

    This can be used to list all blobs in a "folder", e.g. "public/".

    The delimiter argument can be used to restrict the results to only the
    "files" in the given "folder". Without the delimiter, the entire tree under
    the prefix is returned. For example, given these blobs:

        a/1.txt
        a/b/2.txt

    If you specify prefix ='a/', without a delimiter, you'll get back:

        a/1.txt
        a/b/2.txt

    However, if you specify prefix='a/' and delimiter='/', you'll get back
    only the file directly under 'a/':

        a/1.txt

    As part of the response, you'll also get back a blobs.prefixes entity
    that lists the "subfolders" under `a/`:

        a/b/
    """

    storage_client = storage.Client()

    # Note: Client.list_blobs requires at least package version 1.17.0.
    blobs = storage_client.list_blobs(bucket_name, prefix=prefix, delimiter=delimiter)

    # Note: The call returns a response only when the iterator is consumed.
    print("Blobs:")
    for blob in blobs:
        print(blob.name)

    if delimiter:
        print("Prefixes:")
        for prefix in blobs.prefixes:
            print(prefix)

Ruby

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Ruby API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

The following sample lists all objects in a bucket:

def list_files bucket_name:
  # The ID of your GCS bucket
  # bucket_name = "your-unique-bucket-name"

  require "google/cloud/storage"

  storage = Google::Cloud::Storage.new
  bucket  = storage.bucket bucket_name

  bucket.files.each do |file|
    puts file.name
  end
end

The following sample lists objects with a given prefix:

def list_files_with_prefix bucket_name:, prefix:, delimiter: nil
  # Lists all the files in the bucket that begin with the prefix.
  #
  # This can be used to list all files in a "folder", e.g. "public/".
  #
  # The delimiter argument can be used to restrict the results to only the
  # "files" in the given "folder". Without the delimiter, the entire tree under
  # the prefix is returned. For example, given these files:
  #
  #     a/1.txt
  #     a/b/2.txt
  #
  # If you just specify `prefix: "a"`, you will get back:
  #
  #     a/1.txt
  #     a/b/2.txt
  #
  # However, if you specify `prefix: "a"` and `delimiter: "/"`, you will get back:
  #
  #     a/1.txt

  # The ID of your GCS bucket
  # bucket_name = "your-unique-bucket-name"

  # The directory prefix to search for
  # prefix = "a"

  # The delimiter to be used to restrict the results
  # delimiter = "/"

  require "google/cloud/storage"

  storage = Google::Cloud::Storage.new
  bucket  = storage.bucket bucket_name
  files   = bucket.files prefix: prefix, delimiter: delimiter

  files.each do |file|
    puts file.name
  end
end

REST APIs

JSON API

  1. Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized, which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

  2. Use cURL to call the JSON API with a request to list objects:

    curl -X GET -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  "https://storage.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b/BUCKET_NAME/o"

    Where BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket whose objects you want to list. For example, my-bucket.

    You can use the includeFoldersAsPrefixes=True query parameter to return managed folders as part of your list results. When using the includeFoldersAsPrefixes parameter, the delimiter parameter must be set to /.

XML API

  1. Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized, which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

  2. Use cURLto call the XML API with a GET Bucket request:

    curl -X GET -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  "https://storage.googleapis.com/BUCKET_NAME?list-type=2"

    Where BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket whose objects you want to list. For example, my-bucket.

    You can use a prefix=PREFIX query string parameter to limit results to objects that have the specified prefix.

Filtering objects

Console

To filter objects by their name prefix using the Google Cloud console, use the Filter objects and folders field in the Bucket details page.

See filtering and sorting for additional filtering options available using the Google Cloud console.

Command line

When listing objects using the Google Cloud CLI, you can use wildcards to filter for objects that begin with a specified prefix or end with a specified suffix. For example, the following command matches objects that begin with image and end in .png:

gcloud storage ls gs://my-bucket/image*.png

For more information on filtering using the Google Cloud CLI, see the gcloud storage ls documentation.

REST APIs

JSON API

When listing objects using the Cloud Storage JSON API, you can use the prefix or matchGlob query string parameters to filter your results. For details about using these query string parameters, see the Objects list JSON API reference documentation.

Filtering by prefix

You can use the prefix=PREFIX or query string parameter to limit results to objects or managed folders that have the specified prefix. For example, to list all the objects in the bucket my-bucket with the prefix folder/subfolder/, make an object listing request using the URL "https://storage.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b/my-bucket/o?prefix=folder/subfolder/".

Using prefix to list the contents of a managed folder is useful for when you only have the permission to list objects in the managed folder, but not the whole bucket. For example, say you have the Storage Object Viewer (roles/storage.objectViewer) IAM role for the managed folder my-bucket/my-managed-folder-a/, but not for the managed folder my-bucket/my-managed-folder-b/. To return only the objects in my-managed-folder-a, you can specify prefix=my-managed-folder-a/.

When limiting results to a managed folder and the objects within it, you must end PREFIX with / (for example, prefix=my-managed-folder/). Otherwise, the results can also include objects that are adjacent to the managed folder. In this example, you have a bucket that contains the following objects:

  • my-bucket/abc.txt
  • my-bucket/abc/object.txt

Specifying prefix=abc/ can return the objects my-bucket/abc/object.txt, while specifying prefix=abc can return both my-bucket/abc.txt and my-bucket/abc/object.txt.

Filtering by glob expression

You can use the matchGlob=GLOB_PATTERN query string parameter to filter the results to only the objects that match a specific glob expression. For example, matchGlob=**.jpeg can be used to match all objects that end in .jpeg.

Requests that use the matchGlob parameter fail if they also include a delimiter parameter set to a value other than /.

Performance considerations when listing objects

The underlying structure of buckets with hierarchical namespace enabled can influence the performance of the listing objects operation, when compared to flat namespace buckets. For more information about how to optimize the performance when listing objects in buckets with hierarchical namespace enabled, see Listing objects.

What's next