# Download an Issue Attachment

Use the REST API to download an attachment of a specific issue.

> **Note:**
> Please note that any reading operation with an attachment requires you to have a user account that is granted permission to read the target issue and its attachments.

## Summary

To solve this task, you basically need to obtain a full download URl of a specific issue attachment. To do so:

1. Get a list of available attachments with their attributes.

2. Get the attachment by its returned URL.

## Step-by-Step

### Get a List of Issue Attachments

To get the list of issue attachments, send a GET request to the following endpoint:

```
/api/issues/{issue_ID}/attachments
```

To form a download URL for an attachment, make sure you specify the `url` attribute in the `fields` request parameters. To make the identification of the target attachment easier, add also the `name` attribute at least.

For example:

```
curl -X GET \
'https://example.youtrack.cloud/api/issues/2-6/attachments?fields=name,size,mimeType,extension,charset,url' \
-H 'Accept: application/json' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <YouTrack_token>'
```

```JSON
          
[
    {
        "charset": null,
        "extension": "png",
        "url": "/youtrack/api/files/7-2?sign=MTYxMzE2OTAwMDAwMHwxLTF8Ny0yfHdrRzJCYzA2cnZEclFLUzBLWEp6NXZGNE5kczA5eGVIVUUw%0D%0AbF9BVHZ3V3MNCg%0D%0A&updated=1569436739288",
        "mimeType": "image/png",
        "name": "orphan-modules.png",
        "size": 208788,
        "$type": "IssueAttachment"
    },
    {
        "charset": null,
        "extension": "png",
        "url": "/youtrack/api/files/7-3?sign=MTYxMzE2OTAwMDAwMHwxLTF8Ny0zfFMxNW12bkFfNmhWZTFrWjhGa3lNZmF4Umt2MmFXWU1UWUFu%0D%0AUDJhalhITHMNCg%0D%0A&updated=1554209920719",
        "mimeType": "image/png",
        "name": "older-versions.png",
        "size": 23812,
        "$type": "IssueAttachment"
    }
]

```

### Get an Attachment

Now all we need to do is to follow the link that we've received in the `url` attribute of the attachment and save the result as a file.

Make a request in the following format:

```
curl -X GET --output picture.png 'https://{HOST:PORT}{URL from previous request}' -H 'Cache-Control: no-cache'
```

For example:

```
          
curl -X GET --output orphan-modules.png \
'https://example.youtrack.cloud/api/files/7-2?sign=MTYxMzE2OTAwMDAwMHwxLTF8Ny0yfHdrRzJCYzA2cnZEclFLUzBLWEp6NXZGNE5kczA5eGVIVUUw%0D%0AbF9BVHZ3V3MNCg%0D%0A&updated=1569436739288' \
-H 'Cache-Control: no-cache'

```

Note that the `Authorization` header here is not required because the client is identified using the `sign=` request parameter.