Visual FoxPro

Set FTP Command and Directory-Listing Charsets

Demonstrates the CommandCharset and DirListingCharset properties, which control how non-ASCII text is encoded in commands (including remote paths and filenames) and how directory-listing responses are decoded.

Background: FTP predates Unicode, so servers vary in how they encode filenames; getting non-ASCII names right means matching the server's encoding on both sides. CommandCharset (default ANSI) governs outgoing paths and filenames, while DirListingCharset governs decoding of LIST/NLST/MLSD replies. Modern servers typically use UTF-8 — often negotiated automatically via OPTS UTF8 ON — but setting these explicitly resolves mojibake with servers that do not advertise it.

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Visual FoxPro

LOCAL lnSuccess
LOCAL loFtp
LOCAL lcListing

lnSuccess = 0

loFtp = CreateObject('Chilkat.Ftp2')

loFtp.Hostname = "ftp.example.com"
loFtp.Username = "myFtpLogin"

*  CommandCharset is the encoding used for commands containing non-ASCII text, including remote
*  paths and filenames.  The default is ANSI; set utf-8 when the server uses UTF-8 filenames.
loFtp.CommandCharset = "utf-8"

*  DirListingCharset is used only to decode directory-listing responses (LIST, NLST, MLSD).  It
*  does not affect commands or paths.
loFtp.DirListingCharset = "utf-8"

*  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.
loFtp.Password = "myPassword"

lnSuccess = loFtp.Connect()
IF (lnSuccess = 0) THEN
    ? loFtp.LastErrorText
    RELEASE loFtp
    CANCEL
ENDIF

*  Non-ASCII remote paths and listings are now encoded/decoded as UTF-8.
lcListing = loFtp.GetTextDirListing("")
IF (loFtp.LastMethodSuccess = 0) THEN
    ? loFtp.LastErrorText
    RELEASE loFtp
    CANCEL
ENDIF

? lcListing

lnSuccess = loFtp.Disconnect()
IF (lnSuccess = 0) THEN
    ? loFtp.LastErrorText
    RELEASE loFtp
    CANCEL
ENDIF

RELEASE loFtp