Using S3 Presigned-URL for upload a file that will then have public-read access Using S3 Presigned-URL for upload a file that will then have public-read access ruby ruby

Using S3 Presigned-URL for upload a file that will then have public-read access


When you generate a pre-signed URL for a PUT object request, you can specify the key and the ACL the uploader must use. If I wanted the user to upload an objet to my bucket with the key "files/hello.txt" and the file should be publicly readable, I can do the following:

s3 = Aws::S3::Resource.newobj = s3.bucket('bucket-name').object('files/hello.text')put_url = obj.presigned_url(:put, acl: 'public-read', expires_in: 3600 * 24)#=> "https://bucket-name.s3.amazonaws.com/files/hello.text?X-Amz-..."obj.public_url#=> "https://bucket-name.s3.amazonaws.com/files/hello.text"

I can give the put_url to someone else. This URL will allow them to PUT an object to the URL. It has the following conditions:

  • The PUT request must be made within the given expiration. In the example above I specified 24 hours. The :expires_in option may not exceed 1 week.
  • The PUT request must specify the HTTP header of 'x-amz-acl' with the value of 'public-read'.

Using the put_url, I can upload any an object using Ruby's Net::HTTP:

require 'net/http'uri = URI.parse(put_url)request = Net::HTTP::Put.new(uri.request_uri, 'x-amz-acl' => 'public-read')request.body = 'Hello World!'http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)http.use_ssl = true   resp = http.request(request)

Now the object has been uploaded by someone else, I can make a vanilla GET request to the #public_url. This could be done by a browser, curl, wget, etc.


You have two options:

  • Set the ACL on the object to 'public-read' when you PUT the object. This allows you to use the public url without a signature to GET the object.
  • Let the ACL on the object default to private and provide pre-signed GET urls for users. These expire, so you have to generate new URLs as needed. A pre-signed URL allows someone to send GET request to the object without credentials themselves.

Upload a public object and generate a public url:

require 'aws-sdk's3 = Aws::S3::Resource.news3.bucket('bucket-name').object('key').upload_file('/path/to/file', acl:'public-read')s3.public_url#=> "https://bucket-name.s3.amazonaws.com/key"

Upload a private object and generate a GET url that is good for 1-hour:

s3 = Aws::S3::Resource.news3.bucket('bucket-name').object('key').upload_file('/path/to/file')s3.presigned_url(:get, expires_in: 3600)#=> "https://bucket-name.s3.amazonaws.com/key?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&..."