Windows batch file - Upload only latest file to FTP

Question

I want to do an automatic file transfer from Windows server to my FTP.

Problem is that file is generated with timestamp in its name (the name is not fixed). So I nee

Answer 1

To select the newest file in a Windows batch file, see
How do I write a Windows batch script to copy the newest file from a directory?

Based on that you can create an upload batch file like:

@echo off

FOR /F %%I IN ('DIR C:\source\path\*.* /B /O:D') DO SET NEWEST_FILE=%%I

echo Uploading %NEWEST_FILE%

(
    echo open ftp.example.com
    echo username
    echo password
    echo put C:\source\path\%NEWEST_FILE% /target/path/%NEWEST_FILE%
    echo bye
) > ftp.txt

ftp.exe -s:ftp.txt

---

For an easier and more reliable approach, use some more powerful 3rd party FTP client.

For example with WinSCP FTP client, you can use the -latest switch of its put command.

An example batch file (.bat):

winscp.com /ini=nul /command ^
    "open ftp://username:password@ftp.example.com/" ^
    "put -latest C:\source\path\* /target/path/" ^
    "exit"

You can even have WinSCP generate the script/batch file for you (you just need to add the -latest switch manually).

See WinSCP article on Uploading the most recent file.

(I'm the author of WinSCP)