# Determining whether you can access a directory bucket
Determining whether you can access a bucket

The following AWS SDK examples show how to use the `HeadBucket` API operation to determine if an Amazon S3 directory bucket exists and if you have permission to access it. 

## Using the AWS SDKs


The following AWS SDK for Java 2.x example shows how to determine if a bucket exists and if you have permission to access it. 

------
#### [ SDK for Java 2.x ]

**Example**  
 AWS SDK for Java 2.x   

```
public static void headBucket(S3Client s3Client, String bucketName) {
   try {
        HeadBucketRequest headBucketRequest = HeadBucketRequest
                .builder()
                .bucket(bucketName)
                .build();
        s3Client.headBucket(headBucketRequest);
        System.out.format("Amazon S3 bucket: \"%s\" found.", bucketName);
   }

   catch (S3Exception e) {
       System.err.println(e.awsErrorDetails().errorMessage());
       System.exit(1);
   }
}
```

------

## Using the AWS CLI


The following `head-bucket` example command shows how you can use the AWS CLI to determine if a directory bucket exists and if you have permission to access it. To run this command, replace the user input placeholders with your own information.

```
aws s3api head-bucket --bucket bucket-base-name--zone-id--x-s3 
```

For more information, see [https://awscli.amazonaws.com/v2/documentation/api/latest/reference/s3api/head-bucket.html](https://awscli.amazonaws.com/v2/documentation/api/latest/reference/s3api/head-bucket.html) in the *AWS CLI Command Reference*.