FTP Protocol and Deleting Directories

Question

Filezilla is taking forever to delete a nested directory structure from my website. Why does it have to change into each sub directory and delete files instead of just removing the whole top most directory in one go? Is removing a file the only supported command in the FTP RFC and does recursive directory removal have to be implemented by the client?

Answer 1

The FTP RFC (or the Extensions to FTP RFC) does not define any command to recursively delete a directory. You only have the DELE command, defined in section 4.1.3 to delete a file and the way to delete an entire tree using FTP is to recursively delete files and folders (RMD), one by one.

Answer 2

Well, unfortunately yes, as per RFC 959 and a more friendly list