How do I send an arbitrary FTP command

Question

I'm trying to use

executeCommand

defined in

FTPClientInterface

to send simple ftp commands, such as: dir, help, ls, etc. I realize that there are methods for those commands specifically, but I would like to be able to execute and arbitrary command.

In short I'm looking for the behavior of

executeCommand

when connected to SFTP

Am I looking in the wrong place?

Answer 1

executeCommand is available for SFTP, although you need to be careful to use the commands supported by the server.

Answer 2

I'm aware of that, as I specified in my original post, the code block makes it difficult to read and I apologize for that.

I'm looking for a way to accomplish this with FTP and possibly FTPS.

Answer 3

Ah. In FTP/FTPS, there is site commands or you can quote a command.

However most FTP servers won't support the commands you want. It will depend very much on the individual server what it permits.

Answer 4

What do you mean by quoting?

I've tried the following, without any luck:

ftpclient.executeCommand( "\"dir\"" ) 

I'm using FileZilla server in my testing, and I'm pretty sure it has a "dir" command. I've tried using SITE commands, also without any luck.

Do you have any examples of sending arbitrary FTP commands? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 5

I'm using FileZilla server in my testing, and I'm pretty sure it has a "dir" command. I've tried using SITE commands, also without any luck.

Do you have any examples of sending arbitrary FTP commands? Any help is greatly appreciated.

I'm not aware of Filezilla supporting a 'dir' command.

You could try sending HELP SITE to see if the server returns anything, i.e.

ftpclient.executeCommand( "HELP SITE" )

That may tell you what SITE commands are supported.

Your main problem here is that most FTP server support few if any commands like you are describing.

Here's some examples though (for ProFTPD). Look for "Supported SITE commands":

http://www.castaglia.org/proftpd/doc/co ... mands.html

Answer 6

Bruce, I applaud your patience :)

I believe I understand. The commands I was referring to are provided by command line ftp clients, which are different from "raw ftp commands". Thanks for putting me on the right track.