How to List Directory Contents with Ftp in C#

How to List Directory Contents with FTP in C#?

Try this:

FtpWebRequest ftpRequest = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(uri);
ftpRequest.Credentials =new NetworkCredential("anonymous","janeDoe@contoso.com");
ftpRequest.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectory;
FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)ftpRequest.GetResponse();
StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());

List<string> directories = new List<string>();

string line = streamReader.ReadLine();
while (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(line))
{
    directories.Add(line);
    line = streamReader.ReadLine();
}

streamReader.Close();

It gave me a list of directories... all listed in the directories string list... tell me if that is what you needed

List all files from online FTP directory to a listview C#

You can use this wrapper library.

The relevant code is:

    public string[] ListDirectory() {
        var list = new List<string>();

        var request = createRequest(WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectory);

        using (var response = (FtpWebResponse)request.GetResponse()) {
            using (var stream = response.GetResponseStream()) {
                using (var reader = new StreamReader(stream, true)) {
                    while (!reader.EndOfStream) {
                        list.Add(reader.ReadLine());
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        return list.ToArray();
    }

List names of files in FTP directory and its subdirectories

It is s not easy to implement this without any external library. Unfortunately, neither the .NET Framework nor PowerShell have any explicit support for recursively listing files in an FTP directory.

You have to implement that yourself:

• List the remote directory
• Iterate the entries, recursing into subdirectories - listing them again, etc.

Tricky part is to identify files from subdirectories. There's no way to do that in a portable way with the .NET Framework (FtpWebRequest). The .NET Framework unfortunately does not support the MLSD command, which is the only portable way to retrieve directory listing with file attributes in FTP protocol. See also Checking if object on FTP server is file or directory.

Your options are:

• Do an operation on a file name that is certain to fail for file and succeeds for directories (or vice versa). I.e. you can try to download the "name".
• You may be lucky and in your specific case, you can tell a file from a directory by a file name (i.e. all your files have an extension, while subdirectories do not)
• You use a long directory listing (LIST command = ListDirectoryDetails method) and try to parse a server-specific listing. Many FTP servers use *nix-style listing, where you identify a directory by the d at the very beginning of the entry. But many servers use a different format. The following example uses this approach (assuming the *nix format)

static void ListFtpDirectory(string url, NetworkCredential credentials)
{
    WebRequest listRequest = WebRequest.Create(url);
    listRequest.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectoryDetails;
    listRequest.Credentials = credentials;

    List<string> lines = new List<string>();

    using (WebResponse listResponse = listRequest.GetResponse())
    using (Stream listStream = listResponse.GetResponseStream())
    using (StreamReader listReader = new StreamReader(listStream))
    {
        while (!listReader.EndOfStream)
        {
            string line = listReader.ReadLine();
            lines.Add(line);
        }
    }

    foreach (string line in lines)
    {
        string[] tokens =
            line.Split(new[] { ' ' }, 9, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
        string name = tokens[8];
        string permissions = tokens[0];

        if (permissions[0] == 'd')
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Directory {name}");

            string fileUrl = url + name;
            ListFtpDirectory(fileUrl + "/", credentials);
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"File {name}");
        }
    }
}

Use the function like:

NetworkCredential credentials = new NetworkCredential("user", "mypassword");
string url = "ftp://ftp.example.com/directory/to/list/";
ListFtpDirectory(url, credentials);

---

If you want to avoid troubles with parsing the server-specific directory listing formats, use a 3rd party library that supports the MLSD command and/or parsing various LIST listing formats.

For example with WinSCP .NET assembly you can list whole directory recursively with a single call to Session.EnumerateRemoteFiles:

// Setup session options
var sessionOptions = new SessionOptions
{
    Protocol = Protocol.Ftp,
    HostName = "ftp.example.com",
    UserName = "user",
    Password = "mypassword",
};

using (var session = new Session())
{
    // Connect
    session.Open(sessionOptions);

    // Enumerate files
    var options =
        EnumerationOptions.EnumerateDirectories |
        EnumerationOptions.AllDirectories;
    IEnumerable<RemoteFileInfo> fileInfos =
        session.EnumerateRemoteFiles("/directory/to/list", null, options);
    foreach (var fileInfo in fileInfos)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(fileInfo.FullName);
    }
}

Not only the code is simpler, more robust and platform-independent. It also makes all other file attributes (size, modification time, permissions, ownership) readily available via the RemoteFileInfo class.

Internally, WinSCP uses the MLSD command, if supported by the server. If not, it uses the LIST command and supports dozens of different listing formats.

(I'm the author of WinSCP)

I am trying to list all the files present in the ftp server using c# winforms application

I have written the related code in the msdn forum like: download each file in folder.

You can use the FtplistFile method to get a list of all files in the ftp server.

Here is a code example I modified.

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        string uri = "ftp://xxx.x.xx.x/";
        string username = "USERNAME";
        string password = "PASSWORD";
        ListFtpDirectory(uri, new NetworkCredential(username, password));

    }

    static void ListFtpDirectory(string url, NetworkCredential credentials)
    {
        WebRequest listRequest = WebRequest.Create(url);
        listRequest.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectoryDetails;
        listRequest.Credentials = credentials;

        List<string> lines = new List<string>();

        using (WebResponse listResponse = listRequest.GetResponse())
        using (Stream listStream = listResponse.GetResponseStream())
        using (StreamReader listReader = new StreamReader(listStream))
        {
            while (!listReader.EndOfStream)
            {
                string line = listReader.ReadLine();
                lines.Add(line);
            }
        }

        foreach (string line in lines)
        {
            string[] tokens =
                line.Split(new[] { ' ' }, 9, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
            string name = tokens[3];
            string permissions = tokens[2];

            if (permissions == "<DIR>")
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Directory {name}");
                string fileUrl = url + name;
                ListFtpDirectory(fileUrl + "/", credentials);
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine(url+name);
                Console.WriteLine($"File {name}");
            }
        }
    }

Get file name:

Get file path in ftp:

Count/list all files that are in FTP directory with FtpWebRequest in C#

Your code works for me, but @Ozug can be right that your server fails to use CRLF line endings.

A more robust (and more efficient too) implementation is:

List<string> names = new List<string>();
while (!reader.EndOfStream)
{
    names.Add(reader.ReadLine());
}

It should handle even CR line endings.

See also C# class to parse WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectoryDetails FTP response.

Read folder paths from FTP directory to IEnumerable

Using FtpWebRequest

The FtpWebRequest does not have any explicit support for recursive file operations (including listing). You have to implement the recursion yourself:

• List the remote directory
• Iterate the entries, recursing into subdirectories (listing them again, etc.)

Tricky part is to identify files from subdirectories. There's no way to do that in a portable way with the FtpWebRequest. The FtpWebRequest unfortunately does not support the MLSD command, which is the only portable way to retrieve directory listing with file attributes in FTP protocol. See also Checking if object on FTP server is file or directory.

Your options are:

• Do an operation on a file name that is certain to fail for file and succeeds for directories (or vice versa). I.e. you can try to download the "name". If that succeeds, it's a file, if that fails, it's a directory.
• You may be lucky and in your specific case, you can tell a file from a directory by a file name (i.e. all your files have an extension, while subdirectories do not)
• You use a long directory listing (LIST command = ListDirectoryDetails method) and try to parse a server-specific listing. Many FTP servers use *nix-style listing, where you identify a directory by the d at the very beginning of the entry. But many servers use a different format. The following example uses this approach (assuming the *nix format)

void ListFtpDirectory(
    string url, string rootPath, NetworkCredential credentials, List<string> list)
{
    FtpWebRequest listRequest = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url + rootPath);
    listRequest.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectoryDetails;
    listRequest.Credentials = credentials;

    List<string> lines = new List<string>();

    using (FtpWebResponse listResponse = (FtpWebResponse)listRequest.GetResponse())
    using (Stream listStream = listResponse.GetResponseStream())
    using (StreamReader listReader = new StreamReader(listStream))
    {
        while (!listReader.EndOfStream)
        {
            lines.Add(listReader.ReadLine());
        }
    }

    foreach (string line in lines)
    {
        string[] tokens =
            line.Split(new[] { ' ' }, 9, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
        string name = tokens[8];
        string permissions = tokens[0];

        string filePath = rootPath + name;

        if (permissions[0] == 'd')
        {
            ListFtpDirectory(url, filePath + "/", credentials, list);
        }
        else
        {
            list.Add(filePath);
        }
    }
}

Use the function like:

List<string> list = new List<string>();
NetworkCredential credentials = new NetworkCredential("user", "mypassword");
string url = "ftp://ftp.example.com/";
ListFtpDirectory(url, "", credentials, list);

---

Using 3rd party library

If you want to avoid troubles with parsing the server-specific directory listing formats, use a 3rd party library that supports the MLSD command and/or parsing various LIST listing formats; and recursive downloads.

For example with WinSCP .NET assembly you can list whole directory with a single call to the Session.EnumerateRemoteFiles:

// Setup session options
SessionOptions sessionOptions = new SessionOptions
{
    Protocol = Protocol.Ftp,
    HostName = "ftp.example.com",
    UserName = "user",
    Password = "mypassword",
};

using (Session session = new Session())
{
    // Connect
    session.Open(sessionOptions);

    // List files
    IEnumerable<string> list =
        session.EnumerateRemoteFiles("/", null, EnumerationOptions.AllDirectories).
        Select(fileInfo => fileInfo.FullName);
}

Internally, WinSCP uses the MLSD command, if supported by the server. If not, it uses the LIST command and supports dozens of different listing formats.

(I'm the author of WinSCP)

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