How to check if an FTP directory exists

Question

Looking for the best way to check for a given directory via FTP.

Currently i have the following code:

private bool FtpDirectoryExists(string direct         


        

Answer 1

User this code it may be your answer..

 public bool FtpDirectoryExists(string directoryPath, string ftpUser, string ftpPassword)
        {
            bool IsExists = true;
            try
            {
                FtpWebRequest request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(directoryPath);
                request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(ftpUser, ftpPassword);
                request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.PrintWorkingDirectory;

                FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
            }
            catch (WebException ex)
            {
                IsExists = false;
            }
            return IsExists;
        }

I have called this method as:

bool result =    FtpActions.Default.FtpDirectoryExists( @"ftp://mydomain.com/abcdir", txtUsername.Text, txtPassword.Text);

---

Why use another library - create your own logic's.

Answer 2

Navigate to the parent directory, execute the "ls" command, and parse the result.

Answer 3

I assume that you are already somewhat familiar with FtpWebRequest, as this is the usual way to access FTP in .NET.

You can attempt to list the directory and check for an error StatusCode.

try 
{  
    FtpWebRequest request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/12345");  
    request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectory;  
    using (FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)request.GetResponse())  
    {  
        // Okay.  
    }  
}  
catch (WebException ex)  
{  
    if (ex.Response != null)  
    {  
        FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)ex.Response;  
        if (response.StatusCode == FtpStatusCode.ActionNotTakenFileUnavailable)  
        {  
            // Directory not found.  
        }  
    }  
} 

Answer 4

I couldn't get this @BillyLogans suggestion to work....

I found the problem was the default FTP directory was /home/usr/fred

When I used:

String directory = "ftp://some.domain.com/mydirectory"
FtpWebRequest requestDir = (FtpWebRequest)FtpWebRequest.Create(new Uri(directory));

I found this gets turned into

"ftp:/some.domain.com/home/usr/fred/mydirectory"

to stop this change the directory Uri to:

String directory = "ftp://some.domain.com//mydirectory"

Then this starts working.

Answer 5

Basically trapped the error that i receive when creating the directory like so.

private bool CreateFTPDirectory(string directory) {

    try
    {
        //create the directory
        FtpWebRequest requestDir = (FtpWebRequest)FtpWebRequest.Create(new Uri(directory));
        requestDir.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.MakeDirectory;
        requestDir.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
        requestDir.UsePassive = true;
        requestDir.UseBinary = true;
        requestDir.KeepAlive = false;
        FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)requestDir.GetResponse();
        Stream ftpStream = response.GetResponseStream();

        ftpStream.Close();
        response.Close();

        return true;
    }
    catch (WebException ex)
    {
        FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)ex.Response;
        if (response.StatusCode == FtpStatusCode.ActionNotTakenFileUnavailable)
        {
            response.Close();
            return true;
        }
        else
        {
            response.Close();
            return false;
        }  
    }
}

Answer 6

The only way which worked for me was an inversed logic by trying to create the directory/path (which will throw an exception if it already exists) and if so delete it again afterwards. Otherwise use the Exception to set a flag meaing that the directory/path exists. I'm quite new to VB.NET and I'm shure there's a nicer way to code this - but anyway here's my code:

        Public Function DirectoryExists(directory As String) As Boolean
        ' Reversed Logic to check if a Directory exists on FTP-Server by creating the Directory/Path
        ' which will throw an exception if the Directory already exists. Otherwise create and delete the Directory

        ' Adjust Paths
        Dim path As String
        If directory.Contains("/") Then
            path = AdjustDir(directory)     'ensure that path starts with a slash
        Else
            path = directory
        End If

        ' Set URI (formatted as ftp://host.xxx/path)

        Dim URI As String = Me.Hostname & path

        Dim response As FtpWebResponse

        Dim DirExists As Boolean = False
        Try
            Dim request As FtpWebRequest = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create(URI), FtpWebRequest)
            request.Credentials = Me.GetCredentials
            'Create Directory - if it exists WebException will be thrown
            request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.MakeDirectory

            'Delete Directory again - if above request did not throw an exception
            response = DirectCast(request.GetResponse(), FtpWebResponse)
            request = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create(URI), FtpWebRequest)
            request.Credentials = Me.GetCredentials
            request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.RemoveDirectory
            response = DirectCast(request.GetResponse(), FtpWebResponse)
            DirExists = False

        Catch ex As WebException
            DirExists = True
        End Try
        Return DirExists

    End Function

WebRequestMethods.Ftp.MakeDirectory and WebRequestMethods.Ftp.RemoveDirectory are the Methods i used for this. All other solutions did not work for me.

Hope it helps