Create missing directories in ftplib storbinary

Question

I was using pycurl to transfer files over ftp in python. I could create the missing directories automatically on my remote server using:

c.setopt(pycurl.FTP_CREATE_MISSING_DIRS, 1)

for some reasons, I have to switch to ftplib. But I don't know how to to the same here. Is there any option to add to storbinary function to do that? or I have to create the directories manually?

Answer 1

FTP_CREATE_MISSING_DIRS is a curl operation (added here). I'd hazard a guess that you have to do it manually with ftplib, but I'd love to be proven wrong, anyone?

I'd do something like the following: (untested, and need to catch ftplib.all_errors)

ftp = ... # Create connection

# Change directories - create if it doesn't exist
def chdir(dir): 
    if directory_exists(dir) is False: # (or negate, whatever you prefer for readability)
        ftp.mkd(dir)
    ftp.cwd(dir)

# Check if directory exists (in current location)
def directory_exists(dir):
    filelist = []
    ftp.retrlines('LIST',filelist.append)
    for f in filelist:
        if f.split()[-1] == dir and f.upper().startswith('D'):
            return True
    return False

Or you could do directory_exists like this: (a bit harder to read?)

# Check if directory exists (in current location)
def directory_exists(dir):
    filelist = []
    ftp.retrlines('LIST',filelist.append)
    return any(f.split()[-1] == dir and f.upper().startswith('D') for f in filelist)

Answer 2

I know it's kind of an old post but I just needed this and came up with a very simple function. I'm new to Python so I'd appreciate any feedback.

from ftplib import FTP

ftp = FTP('domain.com', 'username', 'password')

def cdTree(currentDir):
    if currentDir != "":
        try:
            ftp.cwd(currentDir)
        except IOError:
            cdTree("/".join(currentDir.split("/")[:-1]))
            ftp.mkd(currentDir)
            ftp.cwd(currentDir)

Usage example:

cdTree("/this/is/an/example")

Answer 3

I tried adding this as a comment to the @Alex L 's answer, but it was too long. You need to descend recursively when changing directory if you want to create directories on the way. E.g.

def chdir(ftp, directory):
    ch_dir_rec(ftp,directory.split('/')) 

# Check if directory exists (in current location)
def directory_exists(ftp, directory):
    filelist = []
    ftp.retrlines('LIST',filelist.append)
    for f in filelist:
        if f.split()[-1] == directory and f.upper().startswith('D'):
            return True
    return False

def ch_dir_rec(ftp, descending_path_split):
    if len(descending_path_split) == 0:
        return

    next_level_directory = descending_path_split.pop(0)

    if not directory_exists(ftp,next_level_directory):
        ftp.mkd(next_level_directory)
    ftp.cwd(next_level_directory)
    ch_dir_rec(ftp,descending_path_split)

Answer 4

This code will create all missing folders in path:

...

def chdir(ftp_path, ftp_conn):
    dirs = [d for d in ftp_path.split('/') if d != '']
    for p in dirs:
        print(p)
        check_dir(p, ftp_conn)


def check_dir(dir, ftp_conn):
    filelist = []
    ftp_conn.retrlines('LIST', filelist.append)
    found = False

    for f in filelist:
        if f.split()[-1] == dir and f.lower().startswith('d'):
            found = True

    if not found:
        ftp_conn.mkd(dir)
    ftp_conn.cwd(dir)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    ftp_conn = ... # ftp connection
    t = 'FTP/for_Vadim/1/2/3/'

    chdir(t, ftp_conn)

This code will check all dirs in path and create missing dirs

before "FTP/for_Vadim/" after "FTP/for_Vadim/1/2/3/"

Answer 5

I'm using something like this (without cwd):

# -*- coding:utf-8 -*-

from ftplib import FTP, error_perm


def createDirs(ftp, dirpath):
    """
    Create dir with subdirs.

    :param ftp:     connected FTP
    :param dirpath: path (like 'test/test1/test2')

    :type ftp:      FTP
    :type dirpath:  str
    :rtype:         None

    """

    dirpath = dirpath.replace('\\', '/')
    tmp = dirpath.split('/')
    dirs = []

    for _ in tmp:
        if len(dirs) == 0:
            dirs.append(_)
            continue

        dirs.append(dirs[-1] + '/' + _)

    for _ in dirs:
        try:
            ftp.mkd(_)
        except error_perm as e:
            e_str = str(e)
            if '550' in e_str and 'File exists' in e_str:
                continue


if __name__ == '__main__':
    # init ftp
    createDirs(ftp=ftp, dirpath='test/1/2/3')

Answer 6

I am using the following lines to resolve missing directory paths for FTP file copy

import os
ftps = FTP_TLS('ftps_server')
ftps.connect()
ftps.login()

destination_dir_path = 'some/dir/path'          # directory path on FTP
dir_path = ''
for i in destination_dir_path.split('/'):
    dir_path = os.path.join(dir_path,i)
    if i not in ftps.nlst(os.path.dirname(dir_path)):
        ftps.mkd(dir_path)                      # create directory on the FTP
ftps.storbinary(...)                            # store file using the binary mode

Answer 7

An alternative is to simply loop through each of the path elements, create the next and change into the newly-created directory. My use case was fairly straightforward though as I was copying items from one FTP server to another.

def create_ftp_path(session: ftplib.FTP, required_dir: str):
    required_dir = required_dir.split('/')[:-1]
    for path_item in required_dir:
        if path_item.strip() == '':
            continue
        path_item = path_item.replace('/', '')
        try:
            session.cwd(path_item)
        except:
            session.mkd(path_item)
            session.cwd(path_item)

Considerations:

• This function assumes you have already changed directory for your FTP session to some base path and the required_dir is a path from that base path.
• required_dir includes file name as the last element.
• I'm removing any / characters because in my case they were causing 553 permission denied exception.
• The exception handling is lacking, but in my case upload validation is happening further in the code so even if it fails it will be caught further down.