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I am trying to retrieve a list of files from a remote FTP server using the ls command. When just executing ls by itself in the command line, it lists the files. When adding a filename to the command, it returns an empty file.

My code works perfectly on several other ftp servers (likely different server config). Not sure what is going wrong.

ftp> Packet tracing On .
ftp> trace on
Connected to ************.
OPEN ************
220 ************ FTP server ready.
User (*****************): 
331 Password required for ********.
230 User ********* logged in.  Access restrictions apply.
ftp> CD incoming
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> Local directory now C:\csrkb\etl\files\incoming\TASK0460\txt\FTP_OBJ_LIST.
ftp> LCD C:\csrkb\etl\files\incoming\TASK0460\txt\FTP_OBJ_LIST
ftp> ls - FTP_OBJECT_LIST.TXT
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> BYE
221-You have transferred 0 bytes in 0 files.
221-Total traffic for this session was 12603 bytes in 2 transfers.
221-Thank you for using the FTP service on ftp-out.
221 Goodbye.
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2 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Why are you using the dash after ls? The remote server is returning an empty list. I would search in the FTP server logs. Make also a network capture with Wireshark. If you have a L7 firewall you should do a capture on the server and compare the two captures.

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Thanks for posting a response. No specific reason for using the dash... it is just how we did it for the other FTP servers we pull data from. For those, it works fine. I have put in a request to the remote servers administrators to check the logs for me. (it is a shipping carrier's FTP server from which we pull event scan data files) – Gary Jun 1 '11 at 13:42
Can you please try without the dash? Like ls FTP_OBJECT_LIST.TXT. Also make sure you are using the same case as displayed by ls of the folder. I mean FTP_OBJECT_LIST.TXT is not the same as Ftp_oBject_lisT.txt – Mircea Vutcovici Jun 1 '11 at 13:53
Run the debug command in ftp before to ls command. – Mircea Vutcovici Jun 1 '11 at 13:55
I did try it before responding, and it failed altogether... with the remote server saying it could not find the file: ls FTP_OBJECT_LIST.TXT 200 PORT command successful. 550 FTP_OBJECT_LIST.TXT: No such file or directory. ftp> BYE 221-You have transferred 0 bytes in 0 files. 221-Total traffic for this session was 366 bytes in 0 transfers. 221-Thank you for using the FTP service on ftp-out. 221 Goodbye. – Gary Jun 1 '11 at 14:02
No such file or directory. - Make sure that you are using the right letter case (lower vs upper/capital). If you are using Linux, try with lftp and use TAB key to do completion. – Mircea Vutcovici Jun 1 '11 at 14:33
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up vote 2 down vote

The ls and dir commands in ftp are intended to take a remote directory as a first parameter, not a filename - doing so with a filename may or may not work, depending on the ftp server. The syntax is:

ls [remote-dir] [local-file]
  • If no parameters are passed, the current directory is listed.
  • If one parameter is passed, it is assumed to be a directory and is listed
  • If the 2nd parameter is passed, it is a local file and the output is sent to this.
  • If the 2nd parameter is omitted or is a hyphen, then the output is sent to the terminal

Having a hyphen immediately after the 'ls' portion with something else following is not a valid command, so who knows what it will do. As is specifying a filename as the first parameter. It should only be a remote directory name.

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what should be listed for the [remote-dir] if the current remote directory is the same? do I still have to specify the remote directory from the root? – Gary Jun 1 '11 at 14:51
@Gary - if you don't specify anything, the current directory is listed. If you specify a directory, that directory (relative to current directory) should be listed. My point is that specifying a filename will give undefined results, as it's not part of the command syntax. – barryj Jun 1 '11 at 15:00
right, got it. I will do some tests and post back here with the results' – Gary Jun 1 '11 at 15:03
I removed the dash and swapped with a '.' period. this pushed the filename (the target file to write the list to) to the appropriate parameter. – Gary Jun 1 '11 at 15:40
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