How can I use FTP to move files between directorie

Question

I have a program that needs to move a file from one directory to another on an FTP server. For example, the file is in:

ftp://1.1.1.1/MAIN/Dir1

and I need to move the file to:

ftp://1.1.1.1/MAIN/Dir2

I found a couple of articles recommending use of the Rename command, so I tried the following:

    Uri serverFile = new Uri(“ftp://1.1.1.1/MAIN/Dir1/MyFile.txt");
    FtpWebRequest reqFTP= (FtpWebRequest)FtpWebRequest.Create(serverFile);
    reqFTP.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.Rename;
    reqFTP.UseBinary = true;
    reqFTP.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(ftpUser, ftpPass);
    reqFTP.RenameTo = “ftp://1.1.1.1/MAIN/Dir2/MyFile.txt";

    FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)reqFTP.GetResponse();

But this doesn’t seem to work – I get the following error:

The remote server returned an error: (550) File unavailable (e.g., file not found, no access).

At first I thought this might relate to permissions, but as far as I can see, I have permissions to the entire FTP site (it is on my local PC and the uri is resolved to localhost).

Should it be possible to move files between directories like this, and if not, how is it possible?

To address some of the point / suggestions that have been raised:

1. I can download the same file from the source directory, so it definitely exists (what I'm doing is downloading the file first, and then moving it somewhere else).
2. I can access the ftp site from a browser (both the source and target directory)
3. The ftp server is running under my own IIS instance on my local machine.
4. The path and case are correct and there are no special characters.

Additionally, I have tried setting the directory path to be:

ftp://1.1.1.1/%2fMAIN/Dir1/MyFile.txt

Both for the source and target path - but this makes no difference either.

I found this article, which seems to say that specifying the destination as a relative path would help - it doesn't appear to be possible to specify an absolute path as the destination.

reqFTP.RenameTo = “../Dir2/MyFile.txt";

Answer 1

What if you only have absolute paths?

Ok, I came across this post because I was getting the same error. The answer seems to be to use a relative path, which is not very good as a solution to my issue, because I get the folder paths as absolute path strings.

The solutions I've come up with on the fly work but are ugly to say the least. I'll make this a community wiki answer, and if anyone has a better solution, feel free to edit this.

Since I've learned this I have 2 solutions.

1. Take the absolute path from the move to path, and convert it to a relative URL.

   public static string GetRelativePath(string ftpBasePath, string ftpToPath)
   {
   
       if (!ftpBasePath.StartsWith("/"))
       {
           throw new Exception("Base path is not absolute");
       }
       else
       {
           ftpBasePath =  ftpBasePath.Substring(1);
       }
       if (ftpBasePath.EndsWith("/"))
       {
           ftpBasePath = ftpBasePath.Substring(0, ftpBasePath.Length - 1);
       }
   
       if (!ftpToPath.StartsWith("/"))
       {
           throw new Exception("Base path is not absolute");
       }
       else
       {
           ftpToPath = ftpToPath.Substring(1);
       }
       if (ftpToPath.EndsWith("/"))
       {
           ftpToPath = ftpToPath.Substring(0, ftpToPath.Length - 1);
       }
       string[] arrBasePath = ftpBasePath.Split("/".ToCharArray());
       string[] arrToPath = ftpToPath.Split("/".ToCharArray());
   
       int basePathCount = arrBasePath.Count();
       int levelChanged = basePathCount;
       for (int iIndex = 0; iIndex < basePathCount; iIndex++)
       {
           if (arrToPath.Count() > iIndex)
           {
               if (arrBasePath[iIndex] != arrToPath[iIndex])
               {
                   levelChanged = iIndex;
                   break;
               }
           }
       }
       int HowManyBack = basePathCount - levelChanged;
       StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
       for (int i = 0; i < HowManyBack; i++)
       {
           sb.Append("../");
       }
       for (int i = levelChanged; i < arrToPath.Count(); i++)
       {
           sb.Append(arrToPath[i]);
           sb.Append("/");
       }
   
       return sb.ToString();
   }
   
   public static string MoveFile(string ftpuri, string username, string password, string ftpfrompath, string ftptopath, string filename)
   {
       string retval = string.Empty;
   
       FtpWebRequest ftp = (FtpWebRequest)FtpWebRequest.Create(ftpuri + ftpfrompath + filename);
       ftp.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.Rename;
       ftp.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, password);
       ftp.UsePassive = true;
       ftp.RenameTo = GetRelativePath(ftpfrompath, ftptopath) + filename;
       Stream requestStream = ftp.GetRequestStream();
   
   
       FtpWebResponse ftpresponse = (FtpWebResponse)ftp.GetResponse();
   
       Stream responseStream = ftpresponse.GetResponseStream();
   
       StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
   
       return reader.ReadToEnd();
   }
   

or...

1. Download the file from the "ftp from" path, upload it to the "ftp to" path and delete it from the "ftp from" path.

   public static string SendFile(string ftpuri, string username, string password, string ftppath, string filename, byte[] datatosend)
   {
       if (ftppath.Substring(ftppath.Length - 1) != "/")
       {
           ftppath += "/";
       }
       FtpWebRequest ftp = (FtpWebRequest)FtpWebRequest.Create(ftpuri + ftppath + filename);
       ftp.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.UploadFile;
       ftp.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, password);
       ftp.UsePassive = true;
       ftp.ContentLength = datatosend.Length;
       Stream requestStream = ftp.GetRequestStream();
       requestStream.Write(datatosend, 0, datatosend.Length);
       requestStream.Close();
   
       FtpWebResponse ftpresponse = (FtpWebResponse)ftp.GetResponse();
   
       return ftpresponse.StatusDescription;
   }
   public static string DeleteFile(string ftpuri, string username, string password, string ftppath, string filename)
   {
   
       FtpWebRequest ftp = (FtpWebRequest)FtpWebRequest.Create(ftpuri + ftppath + filename);
       ftp.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DeleteFile;
       ftp.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, password);
       ftp.UsePassive = true;
   
       FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)ftp.GetResponse();
   
       Stream responseStream = response.GetResponseStream();
   
       StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
   
       return reader.ReadToEnd();
   }
   public static string MoveFile(string ftpuri, string username, string password, string ftpfrompath, string ftptopath, string filename)
   {
       string retval = string.Empty;
       byte[] filecontents = GetFile(ftpuri, username, password, ftpfrompath, filename);
       retval += SendFile(ftpuri, username, password, ftptopath, filename, filecontents);
       retval += DeleteFile(ftpuri, username, password, ftpfrompath, filename);
       return retval;
   }
   

Answer 2

U can use this code:

File original location "ftp://example.com/directory1/Somefile.file".

File to be moved, "/newDirectory/Somefile.file".

Note that destination Url not need start with: ftp://example.com

NetworkCredential User = new NetworkCredential("UserName", "password");
FtpWebRequest Wr =FtpWebRequest)FtpWebRequest.Create("ftp://Somwhere.com/somedirectory/Somefile.file");
Wr.UseBinary = true;
Wr.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.Rename;
Wr.Credentials = User;
Wr.RenameTo = "/someotherDirectory/Somefile.file";
back = (FtpWebResponse)Wr.GetResponse();
bool Success = back.StatusCode == FtpStatusCode.CommandOK || back.StatusCode == FtpStatusCode.FileActionOK;

Answer 3

Do you have those folders defined in the FTP service? Is the FTP service running? If the answer to either question is no, you cannot use FTP to move the files.

Try opening the FTP folder in an FTP client and see what happens. If you still have an error, there is something wrong with your definition as the FTP service does not see the folder or the folder is not logically where you think it is in the FTP service.

You can also open up the IIS manager and look at how things are set up in FTP.

As for other methods to move files, you can easily move from a UNC path to another, as long as the account the program runs under has proper permissions to both. The UNC path is similar to an HTTP or FTP path, with whacks in the opposite direction and no protocol specified.