Downloading multiple files using FTP in C#

Question

I need to write a routines that downloads a given directory on the server completely - all the files and directories in it.

Right now I have a routine that lists dir content

public List<string> GetListOfFiles(string serverPath)
        {
            List<string> files = new List<string>();
            try
            {

                FtpWebRequest request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp://" + serverPath);               
                request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(_domain + "\\" + _username, _password);
                request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectory;               


                FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
                StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());

                string line = reader.ReadLine();
                while (line != null)
                {
                    files.Add(line);                    
                    line = reader.ReadLine();
                }
                response.Close();

            }           
            catch (WebException ex)
            {
                FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)ex.Response;
                string exMsg = string.Empty;

                switch (response.StatusCode)
                {
                    case FtpStatusCode.NotLoggedIn:
                        exMsg = "wrong username/password";
                        break;   


                    default:
                        exMsg = "The server is inaccessible or taking too long to respond.";
                        break;
                }   


                throw new Exception(exMsg);
            }
            return files;

        }

The issue is that I get the list of files and directories...so something like

file1.dll
file2.dll
dir1Name

Is there a way to make a distinction between a file name and a directory name when listing it? Like a flag?

The response returned by ListDirectory is not standardized and can vary based on the software the server is running. Because of this, there isn't a good way to tell directories from files. — cadrell0
– cadrell0, Commented Sep 25, 2012 at 20:29

Reed Copsey · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-25 20:28:44Z

1

Unfortunately, the returned information is really a function of your FTP server, not the framework.

You can ListDirectoryDetails instead of ListDirectory, which should provide you much more detailed information (including whether each file is a directory or a file), but would require special parsing, as its format, too, is dependent on the FTP Server.

answered Sep 25, 2012 at 20:28

Reed Copsey

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