S3 folder not created when specified in the Key

[aweick]

When I follow the sample on the wiki to upload a folder and change the prefix variable to "hello" for example, the "hello" folder is not created in my bucket. On S3, I see a file called "hello\hello.txt" NOT a folder called "hello" with a "hello.txt" file inside of the folder.

result, err := uploader.Upload(&s3manager.UploadInput{
            Bucket: &bucket,
            Key:    aws.String(filepath.Join("hello", rel)),
            Body:   file,
        })

[reedobrien]

Are you on windows?

[aweick]

Sorry, yes this is occurring on Windows.

[reedobrien]

I would make that guess because a windows file path separator would be "" which doesn't appear as a "folder" in s3. In fact there are no "folders" in s3, but AWS console makes paths with "/" appear hierarchical. Try joining with "/". I.e. 'path.Join'. I don't have windows so I don't know if that will use "" or "/".

[aweick]

That did it, thanks! I am going to have to code around this depending on the OS. Seems like this should be handled by the UploadManager or am I mistaken and this is as designed?

[reedobrien]

I don't know about "design" intentions. Probably more like cognitive impedance. There is no hierarchy in s3. Each object has a key, this/is/not/a/path/but/a/key.txt could just as easily be this\is\not\a\path\but\a\key.txt, however those are two different keys representing two different objects.
Things can share a prefix... but there is no hierarchy. The s3 console does a bit of a disservice to users making it appear as a file system hierarchy, but I suppose that lowers the cognitive load for new users.

[jasdel]

Hi @aweick, it looks like the issue you were having is resolved. Like @reedobrien mentioned S3 does not actually store objects in a file hierarchy, but by a key. Tools such as the AWS S3 Console will display content as a file hierarchy by interpreting the \ as directory separators to make it easier to view buckets with a lot prefixed of content.

If you're looking to maintain this functionality I agree using path.Join() is a good way to join these components. path.Join is OS/Platform augnostic using \ as path component seperator.

[aweick]

Hi @jasdel. I understood that S3 does not really have folders. The mistake I made was thinking that the SDK would handle the slashes appropriately for S3. As the example code on the wiki yields different results depending on the platform I would recommend that it get updated to something agnostic as well.