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WebDAV access using command-line tools

You can access the Data Store via command-line tools using WebDAV, which is especially useful for integrating data into analysis pipelines or scripts. This guide covers using curl, a widely used command-line tool, for efficient WebDAV access and data management.

WebDAV Access Information

Use the following credentials to connect to the Data Store:

Key Value
URL https://data.cyverse.org/dav
username <CyVerse Username>
password <CyVerse Password>

Use these credentials for anonymous access to the Data Store:

Key Value
username anonymous
password (leave empty)

Connect to the Data Store

To list the contents of your home directory in the Data Store using WebDAV, open a terminal and run the following command:

curl --user '<username>:<password>' https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/home/<username>
  • Use your CyVerse username and password with --user flag to login

  • https://data.cyverse.org/dav is the URL of the WebDAV root. Add Data Store path after for URL

  • --user '<username>:<password>': This option provides your CyVerse username and password for authentication. Replace and with your actual credentials.

  • https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/home/<username>: This is the URL of your home directory within the Data Store's WebDAV server. https://data.cyverse.org/dav is the root WebDAV URL, and /iplant/home/<username> specifies the path to your home directory in the Data Store.

The output will be an HTML-formatted text displaying files and directories in a table layout.

Data Locations

  1. User Data
    Users can access their data at:

    https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/home/<username>/

  2. Public Data (Read-Only Access)
    Anonymous users can access public data at:

    https://data.cyverse.org/dav-anon/

  3. Community/Project Data
    To access project-specific data stored in iRODS at /iplant/home/shared/<project>/, use: 

    https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/projects/<project>/

  4. CyVerse Curated Data (DOI-Backed Datasets)
    Access curated datasets with DOIs in the Data Commons at: 

    https://data.cyverse.org/dav-anon/iplant/commons/cyverse_curated/

Examples

  1. List files in your home directory: 

    curl https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/home/myUser

    This prints files and directories in HTML format.

  2. Read a file: 

    curl https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/home/myUser/myfile.txt

    This displays the content of myfile.txt in the terminal.

  3. Download a file: 

    curl -O https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/home/myUser/myfile.txt

    This saves myfile.txt to the current directory.

    curl -o newfile.txt https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/home/myUser/myfile.txt

    This saves myfile.txt as newfile.txt in the current directory.

  4. Upload a file: 

    curl -T localfile.txt https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/home/myUser

  5. Creat a new directory: 

    curl -X MKCOL https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/home/myUser/newdir

  6. Renaming a File: 

    curl -X MOVE --header "Destination: https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/home/myUser/new_name.txt" https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/home/myUser/old_name.txt

    This renames old_name.txt to new_name.txt.

  7. Deleting Files/Folders: 

    curl -X DELETE https://data.cyverse.org/dav/iplant/home/myUser/file_to_delete.txt

Adapted from CyVerse Learning Materials (last source update 2025-03-27), CC BY 4.0. Spotted a problem? Open an issue.