How to delete all the files in a folder including the files in the sub folders without deleting the the folder. VB.Net Delete all files in folder. Data Science.

1. Ftp Directory Command

I searched all over the internet about my question but I found answer for C# only, but none for VB.NET.

I want to download all the files and sub-directories of a directory on my FTP server.

I am currently doing it by downloading a ZIP file from my FTP server and extracting it but this is not a good method.

Thanks!

2 Answers

I KNOW YOU MIGHT BE LAZY TO READ ALL THAT, BUT THIS IS THE ANSWER!!! THE CODE IS AT THE END :D

Hello,

It is very simple to do using the WinSCP library which is available for C# and VB.NET - here is the full answer:

Firsly, install the WinSCP library to your project, see here: https://winscp.net/eng/docs/library#downloading_and_installing_the_assembly

Or if you are lazy to do it, then just download the library and add the DLL file as a reference in your project.

And now let's download the whole directory including its files and its sub-directories to the local storage.

You have 2 options:

• Session.GetFiles to download even if the files & directories are already downloaded.

• Session.SynchronizeDirectories to download the files & directories if they does not exists, and also will download the the modified files which already exists. (BEST and better than the first option).

I used the second option of course because it is the best one ever. However, if you want to use the Session.GetFiles method.. you can see the VB.NET example here: https://winscp.net/eng/docs/library_session_getfiles#vbnet

Dragon quest collection wii iso. And here is how I used the second option: https://winscp.net/eng/docs/faq_script_modified_files

As you can see, everything is explained great!

Basically use synchronize local instead of get and synchronize remote instead of put.

With WinSCP .NET assembly that means, use Session.SynchronizeDirectories, with argument mode set to SynchronizationMode.Remote or SynchronizationMode.Local instead of Session.GetFiles or Session.PutFiles respectively.

And as I wanted to download the files from the FTP Server to my local PC, then here is what I used (SynchronizeDirectories):

1. So yes! Of course Imports WinSCP first :-)

2. Use this code, because the code on https://winscp.net/eng/docs/library_session_synchronizedirectories#vbnet is for SFTP (port 22) and not FTP (port 21) .. and also it uses SynchronizeMode.Remote which uploads from your PC to the FTP server , so in the code below I replaced .Remote with .Local

Don't forget to replace the credentials and the paths.

One more thing? Good luck on your project! :-)

Translating my answer to C# Download all files and subdirectories through FTP to VB.NET:

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

• List the remote directory
• Iterate the entries, downloading files and 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)

Use the function like:

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 download whole directory with a single call to the Session.GetFiles:

Ftp Directory Command

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.

The Session.GetFiles method is recursive by default.

(I'm the author of WinSCP)

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .netvb.netftp or ask your own question.

I searched all over the internet about my question but I found answer for C# only, but none for VB.NET.

I want to download all the files and sub-directories of a directory on my FTP server.

I am currently doing it by downloading a ZIP file from my FTP server and extracting it but this is not a good method.

Thanks!

2 Answers

I KNOW YOU MIGHT BE LAZY TO READ ALL THAT, BUT THIS IS THE ANSWER!!! THE CODE IS AT THE END :D

Hello,

It is very simple to do using the WinSCP library which is available for C# and VB.NET - here is the full answer:

Firsly, install the WinSCP library to your project, see here: https://winscp.net/eng/docs/library#downloading_and_installing_the_assembly

Or if you are lazy to do it, then just download the library and add the DLL file as a reference in your project.

And now let's download the whole directory including its files and its sub-directories to the local storage.

You have 2 options:

• Session.GetFiles to download even if the files & directories are already downloaded.

• Session.SynchronizeDirectories to download the files & directories if they does not exists, and also will download the the modified files which already exists. (BEST and better than the first option).

I used the second option of course because it is the best one ever. However, if you want to use the Session.GetFiles method.. you can see the VB.NET example here: https://winscp.net/eng/docs/library_session_getfiles#vbnet

And here is how I used the second option: https://winscp.net/eng/docs/faq_script_modified_files

As you can see, everything is explained great!

Basically use synchronize local instead of get and synchronize remote instead of put.

With WinSCP .NET assembly that means, use Session.SynchronizeDirectories, with argument mode set to SynchronizationMode.Remote or SynchronizationMode.Local instead of Session.GetFiles or Session.PutFiles respectively.

And as I wanted to download the files from the FTP Server to my local PC, then here is what I used (SynchronizeDirectories): Tongbu english version.

1. So yes! Of course Imports WinSCP first :-)

2. Use this code, because the code on https://winscp.net/eng/docs/library_session_synchronizedirectories#vbnet is for SFTP (port 22) and not FTP (port 21) .. and also it uses SynchronizeMode.Remote which uploads from your PC to the FTP server , so in the code below I replaced .Remote with .Local

Don't forget to replace the credentials and the paths.

One more thing? Good luck on your project! :-)

Translating my answer to C# Download all files and subdirectories through FTP to VB.NET:

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

• List the remote directory
• Iterate the entries, downloading files and 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)

Use the function like:

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 download whole directory with a single call to the Session.GetFiles:

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.

The Session.GetFiles method is recursive by default.

(I'm the author of WinSCP)

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .netvb.netftp or ask your own question.