how to fetch a range of files from an FTP server using C#

Question

hello all,

i'm stuck at a point where i am using a wildcard parameter with the FtpWebRequest object as suck

   FtpWebRequest reqFTP = (FtpWebRequest)FtpWebRequest.Create(new Uri("ftp://" + ftpServerIP + "/" + WildCard));

now this works fine, however i now want to fetch a specific range of files.

say the file naming structure is *YYYYMMDD.* and i need to fetch all the files prior to today's date.

i've been searching for a wildcard pattern for that with no good results, one that will work in a simple file listing.

and it doesn't look like i can use regex here.

any thoughts ?

Answer 1

The FTP RETR (retrieve) command does not support wild cards.

You will have to get a LIST of all files, loop over them and retrieve only the ones that follow the pattern you need.

RFC 959 does not specify wild cards, but simply states a <pathname> should be passed to the RETR command.