Remove a Remote Directory on an SFTP Server

See more SFTP Examples

Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.RemoveDir method, which deletes a remote directory. The only argument is the directory path.

Background: Most SFTP servers refuse to remove a directory that is not empty, so deleting a populated tree means removing its files and subdirectories first — the inverse of building a path level by level. There is no single "recursive delete" in the SFTP protocol; a client implements it by listing, descending, and removing bottom-up.

Chilkat C# Downloads

Download Chilkat for C#

bool success = false;

//  Demonstrates the SFtp.RemoveDir method, which deletes a remote directory.  The only argument
//  is the directory path.

Chilkat.SFtp sftp = new Chilkat.SFtp();

//  Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
int port = 22;
success = sftp.Connect("sftp.example.com",port);
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(sftp.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

//  Normally you would not hard-code the password in source.  You should instead obtain it
//  from an interactive prompt, environment variable, or a secrets vault.
string password = "mySshPassword";

success = sftp.AuthenticatePw("mySshLogin",password);
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(sftp.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

success = sftp.InitializeSftp();
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(sftp.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

//  Delete a remote directory.  Most SFTP servers require the directory to be empty first.
success = sftp.RemoveDir("subdir/oldfolder");
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(sftp.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

Debug.WriteLine("Directory removed.");

sftp.Disconnect();