pathstyle

Pathstyle refers to a method of addressing resources where the hierarchy is encoded in the path portion of a URI, following the host name, rather than in the host portion itself. In path-style addressing, the resource identifier appears as part of the path, typically after a slash, rather than being embedded in the domain or subdomain. This is contrasted with host-based or virtual-host addressing, where the host name conveys part or all of the resource’s identity.

In practice, path-style addressing has been common in certain web services and cloud storage APIs. For example, older object storage endpoints used URLs like https://service.example.com/bucket/key, with the bucket name in the path. Many providers now favor virtual-hosted or host-based addressing, such as https://bucket.service.example.com/key, but path-style endpoints may still exist for legacy compatibility, specific regions, or particular API versions.

Advantages and considerations include easier routing by path on some proxies or gateways, and straightforward compatibility with systems lacking virtual-hosted DNS. Drawbacks can include limitations in TLS configuration when many buckets share a single host, DNS and certificate constraints, and potential slug encoding issues for bucket or object names. Path-style endpoints may also impose naming constraints and are sometimes deprecated in favor of host-based approaches by service providers.

See also: URI, URL, path-based addressing, virtual-hosted–style addressing, REST. Path-style addressing arose in the early design of URI schemes and remains relevant mainly for legacy configurations and certain regional or API-specific endpoints.