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BLOB(1) User Commands BLOB(1)

NAME

blob - APT method helper for Azure Blob Storage repositories

SYNOPSIS

blob

DESCRIPTION

blob is the APT method helper shipped by apt-transport-blob. When installed, APT can retrieve repository metadata and packages from Azure Blob Storage URLs that use the blob:// scheme.

The helper implements the APT method protocol and is normally invoked by APT, not run directly by users.

URL FORMAT

APT source entries may use URLs of the form:

blob://ACCOUNT.blob.core.windows.net/CONTAINER/PATH

The helper translates these to HTTPS requests against the same host and path, using Azure Storage bearer-token authentication.

AUTHENTICATION

The selected Azure credential must be authorized to read the blob container, for example with the Storage Blob Data Reader role.

Credentials are tried in this order:

A bearer token for Azure Storage. It can be obtained with:
az account get-access-token --output tsv --query accessToken --resource https://storage.azure.com
    
Set AZURE_TENANT_ID, AZURE_CLIENT_ID, and AZURE_FEDERATED_TOKEN_FILE.
Set AZURE_TENANT_ID, AZURE_CLIENT_ID, and AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET.
Uses an existing Azure CLI login session (for example after az login).
On Azure compute, the helper can obtain a token from the Instance Metadata Service. This is tried last because it requires a network request that can time out outside Azure.

ENVIRONMENT

Overrides the Azure Active Directory authority host used for workload identity and client-secret authentication.
Bearer token used directly for Azure Storage requests.
Tenant ID used for workload identity and client-secret authentication.
Client ID used for workload identity and client-secret authentication.
Path to a federated identity token file used for workload identity.
Client secret used for client-secret authentication.

FILES

/usr/lib/apt/methods/blob
APT method helper installed by this package.
/var/log/apt-transport-blob.log
Debug log written by the helper.

SEE ALSO

apt(8), sources.list(5), az(1)

June 2026 apt-transport-blob