Lua

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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Lua

local chilkat = require("chilkat")

local ftp = chilkat.Ftp2.new()

ftp.hostname = "ftp.example.com"
ftp.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.
ftp.command_charset = "utf-8"

-- DirListingCharset is used only to decode directory-listing responses (LIST, NLST, MLSD).  It
-- does not affect commands or paths.
ftp.dir_listing_charset = "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.
ftp.password = "myPassword"

local success = ftp:connect()
if not success then
    print(ftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

-- Non-ASCII remote paths and listings are now encoded/decoded as UTF-8.
local listing = ftp:get_text_dir_listing("")
if not ftp.last_method_success then
    print(ftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

print(listing)

success = ftp:disconnect()
if not success then
    print(ftp.last_error_text)
    return
end