How do I delete file from FTP server?

This example demonstrates how to delete file from FTP server.

package org.kodejava.commons.net;

import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPClient;

import java.io.IOException;

public class FTPDeleteDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        FTPClient client = new FTPClient();

        try {
            client.connect("ftp.example.com");
            client.login("demo", "password");

            // Delete file on the FTP server. When the FTP delete
            // process completes, it returns true.
            String filename = "data.txt";
            boolean deleted = client.deleteFile(filename);
            if (deleted) {
                System.out.printf("File %s was deleted...", filename);
            } else {
                System.out.println("No file was deleted...");
            }

            client.logout();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            try {
                client.disconnect();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }
}

Maven Dependencies

<dependency>
    <groupId>commons-net</groupId>
    <artifactId>commons-net</artifactId>
    <version>3.10.0</version>
</dependency>

Maven Central

How do I get a list of files from FTP server?

This example demonstrates how to retrieve a list of files from FTP server. First we create an instance of org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPClient. Connect to the FTP server and login with your username and password.

The listFiles() method of the FTPClient return the list of filenames contained in the current working directory. null if the list could not be obtained. If there are no filenames in the directory, a zero-length array is returned.

package org.kodejava.commons.net;

import org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils;
import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPClient;
import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPFile;

import java.io.IOException;

public class FTPListDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        FTPClient client = new FTPClient();

        try {
            client.connect("ftp.example.com");
            client.login("demo", "password");

            if (client.isConnected()) {
                // Obtain a list of filenames in the current working
                // directory. When no file is found, an empty array will
                // be returned.
                String[] names = client.listNames();
                for (String name : names) {
                    System.out.println("Name = " + name);
                }

                FTPFile[] ftpFiles = client.listFiles();
                for (FTPFile ftpFile : ftpFiles) {
                    // Check if FTPFile is a regular file
                    if (ftpFile.getType() == FTPFile.FILE_TYPE) {
                        System.out.printf("FTPFile: %s; %s%n",
                            ftpFile.getName(),
                            FileUtils.byteCountToDisplaySize(ftpFile.getSize()));
                    }
                }
            }
            client.logout();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            try {
                client.disconnect();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }
}

Here is the example result of our code:

Name = example.html
Name = Touch.dat
FTPFile: examples.html; 1 bytes
FTPFile: Touch.dat; 0 bytes

Maven Dependencies

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-net</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-net</artifactId>
        <version>3.10.0</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
        <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
        <version>2.14.0</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Maven Central Maven Central

How do I upload file to FTP server?

This example demonstrates how to upload file to FTP server.

package org.kodejava.commons.net;

import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPClient;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;

public class FTPUploadDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        FTPClient client = new FTPClient();
        String filename = "data.txt";

        // Read the file from the resources folder.
        ClassLoader classLoader = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader();
        try (InputStream is = classLoader.getResourceAsStream(filename)) {
            client.connect("ftp.example.com");
            boolean login = client.login("demo", "password");
            if (login) {
                System.out.println("Login success...");

                // Store file to server
                client.storeFile(filename, is);
                client.logout();
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            try {
                client.disconnect();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }
}

Maven Dependencies

<dependency>
    <groupId>commons-net</groupId>
    <artifactId>commons-net</artifactId>
    <version>3.10.0</version>
</dependency>

Maven Central

How do I download file from FTP server?

This example demonstrates how to download a file from FTP server. To download a file, we first connect to the FTP server and then login by supplying the username and password. To download the file we call retrieveFile() method of the FTPClient object. This method takes two parameters, the remote filename and an OutputStream of the local file where the download to be saved.

package org.kodejava.commons.net;

import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPClient;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;

public class FTPDownloadDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // The local filename and remote filename to be downloaded.
        String filename = "data.txt";

        FTPClient client = new FTPClient();
        try (OutputStream os = new FileOutputStream(filename)) {
            client.connect("ftp.example.com");
            boolean login = client.login("demo", "password");
            if (login) {
                System.out.println("Login success...");

                // Download file from FTP server.
                boolean status = client.retrieveFile(filename, os);
                System.out.println("status = " + status);
                System.out.println("reply  = " + client.getReplyString());
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            try {
                client.disconnect();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }
}

If the download process was success, you will see the following output printed:

status = true
reply  = 226 Transfer complete.

Maven Dependencies

<dependency>
    <groupId>commons-net</groupId>
    <artifactId>commons-net</artifactId>
    <version>3.10.0</version>
</dependency>

Maven Central

How do I connect to FTP server?

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to transfer computer files between a client and server on a computer network. The example below shows you how to connect to an FTP server.

In this example we are using the FTPClient class of the Apache Commons Net library. To connect to the server, we need to provide the FTP server name. Login to the server can be done by calling the login() method of this class with a valid username and password. To logout we call the logout() method.

Let’s try the code snippet below:

package org.kodejava.commons.net;

import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPClient;

import java.io.IOException;

public class FTPConnectDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        FTPClient client = new FTPClient();

        try {
            client.connect("ftp.example.com");

            // When login success, the login method returns true.
            boolean login = client.login("demo", "password");
            if (login) {
                System.out.println("Login success...");

                // When logout success, the logout method returns true.
                boolean logout = client.logout();
                if (logout) {
                    System.out.println("Logout from FTP server...");
                }
            } else {
                System.out.println("Login fail...");
            }

        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            try {
                // Closes the connection to the FTP server
                client.disconnect();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
    }
}

Maven Dependencies

<dependency>
    <groupId>commons-net</groupId>
    <artifactId>commons-net</artifactId>
    <version>3.10.0</version>
</dependency>

Maven Central