How to check if an FTP directory exists

Question

Looking for the best way to check for a given directory via FTP.

Currently i have the following code:

private bool FtpDirectoryExists(string direct         


        

Answer 1

I tried every which way to get a solid check but neither the WebRequestMethods.Ftp.PrintWorkingDirectory nor WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectory methods would work correctly. They failed when checking for ftp:///Logs which doesnt exist on the server but they say it does.

So the method I came up with was to try to upload to the folder. However, one 'gotcha' is the path format which you can read about in this thread Uploading to Linux

Here is a code snippet

private bool DirectoryExists(string d) 
{ 
    bool exists = true; 
    try 
    { 
        string file = "directoryexists.test"; 
        string path = url + homepath + d + "/" + file;
        //eg ftp://website//home/directory1/directoryexists.test
        //Note the double space before the home is not a mistake

        //Try to save to the directory 
        req = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(path); 
        req.ConnectionGroupName = "conngroup1"; 
        req.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.UploadFile; 
        if (nc != null) req.Credentials = nc; 
        if (cbSSL.Checked) req.EnableSsl = true; 
        req.Timeout = 10000; 

        byte[] fileContents = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes("SAFE TO DELETE"); 
        req.ContentLength = fileContents.Length; 

        Stream s = req.GetRequestStream(); 
        s.Write(fileContents, 0, fileContents.Length); 
        s.Close(); 

        //Delete file if successful 
        req = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(path); 
        req.ConnectionGroupName = "conngroup1"; 
        req.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DeleteFile; 
        if (nc != null) req.Credentials = nc; 
        if (cbSSL.Checked) req.EnableSsl = true; 
        req.Timeout = 10000; 

        res = (FtpWebResponse)req.GetResponse(); 
        res.Close(); 
    } 
    catch (WebException ex) 
    { 
        exists = false; 
    } 
    return exists; 
}