dvc.api.get_url()

Returns the URL to the storage location of a data file or directory tracked in a DVC project.

def get_url(path: str,
            repo: str = None,
            rev: str = None,
            remote: str = None) -> str

Usage

import dvc.api

resource_url = dvc.api.get_url(
    'get-started/data.xml',
    repo='https://github.com/iterative/dataset-registry'
)
# resource_url is now "https://remote.dvc.org/dataset-registry/a3/04afb96060aad90176268345e10355"

Description

Returns the URL string of the storage location (in a DVC remote where a target file or directory, specified by its path in a repo (DVC project), is stored.

The URL is formed by reading the project's remote configuration and the dvc.yaml or .dvc file where the given path is found (outs field). The schema of the URL returned depends on the storage type of the remote (see the Parameters section).

If the target is a directory, the returned URL will end in .dir. Refer to Structure of cache directory and dvc add to learn more about how DVC handles data directories.

This function does not check for the actual existence of the file or directory in the remote storage.

Having the resource's URL, it should be possible to download it directly with an appropriate library, such as boto3 or paramiko.

Parameters

path (required) - location and file name of the target, relative to the root of the project (repo).
repo - specifies the location of the DVC project. It can be a URL or a file system path. Both HTTP and SSH protocols are supported for online Git repos (e.g. [user@]server:project.git). Default: The current project (found by walking up from the current working directory tree).
rev - Git commit (any revision such as a branch or tag name, commit hash, or experiment name). If repo is not a Git repo, this option is ignored. Default: None (current working tree will be used)
remote - name of the DVC remote to use to form the returned URL string. Default: The default remote of repo is used.

Exceptions

dvc.exceptions.NoRemoteError - no remote is found.

Example: Getting the URL to a DVC-tracked file

import dvc.api

resource_url = dvc.api.get_url(
    'get-started/data.xml',
    repo='https://github.com/iterative/dataset-registry',
)
print(resource_url)

The script above prints

https://remote.dvc.org/dataset-registry/a3/04afb96060aad90176268345e10355

This URL represents the location where the data is stored, and is built by reading the corresponding .dvc file (get-started/data.xml.dvc) where the md5 file hash is stored,

outs:
  - md5: a304afb96060aad90176268345e10355
    path: get-started/data.xml

and the project configuration (.dvc/config) where the remote URL is saved:

['remote "storage"']
url = https://remote.dvc.org/dataset-registry