SSH.NET SFTP Get a list of directories and files recursively

Question

I am using Renci.SshNet library to get a list of files and directories recursively by using SFTP. I can able to connect SFTP site but I am not sure how to get a list of director

Answer 1

@Carlos Bos

This library has some quirks that make this recursive listing tricky because the interaction between the ChangeDirectory and ListDirectory do not work as you may expect.

correct

It works well when the ChangeDirectory() parameter is "."

but if you do

SftpClient sftp ...;
sftp.ChangeDirectory("some_folder");
//get file list
List fileList = sftp.ListDirectory("some_folder").ToList();

then there is an assertion because the ListDirectory() call expects "some_folder/some_folder"

The workaround I use is to save and restore the current directory before a remote upload/rename to "some_folder", and you need to list that folder before the operation (e.g to see the file already exists)

string working_directory = sftp.WorkingDirectory;
sftp.ChangeDirectory("some_folder");
sftp.RenameFile("name", "new_name");
sftp.ChangeDirectory(working_directory);

to check if the file exists, this call is sufficient

sftp.Exists(path)

or if you want to add some other criteria, like case sensitive or not

 public FileExistence checkFileExists(string folder, string fileName)
    {
      //get file list
      List fileList = sftp.ListDirectory(folder).ToList();

      if (fileList == null)
      {
        return FileExistence.UNCONFIRMED;
      }

      foreach (SftpFile f in fileList)
      {
        Console.WriteLine(f.ToString());
        //a not case sensitive comparison is made
        if (f.IsRegularFile && f.Name.ToLower() == fileName.ToLower())
        {
          return FileExistence.EXISTS;
        }
      }

      //if not found in traversal , it does not exist
      return FileExistence.DOES_NOT_EXIST;
    }

where FileExistence is

public enum FileExistence
    {
      EXISTS,
      DOES_NOT_EXIST,
      UNCONFIRMED
    };