Lua

Open a Remote Directory on an SFTP Server

Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.OpenDir method, which opens a remote directory and returns a handle for reading its entries. The only argument is the directory path. Close the handle with CloseHandle when finished.

Background: Listing a directory in SFTP is a handle-based operation, mirroring file access: open the directory to get a handle, read its entries, then close it. The handle is passed to ReadDirListing to retrieve the names and attributes. As with file handles, the directory handle is a server-side resource that should be closed to avoid exhausting the server's limits.

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Lua

local chilkat = require("chilkat")

-- Demonstrates the SFtp.OpenDir method, which opens a remote directory and returns a handle for
-- reading its entries.  The only argument is the directory path.

local sftp = chilkat.SFtp.new()

-- Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
local port = 22
local success = sftp:connect("sftp.example.com", port)
if not success then
    print(sftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

-- 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.
local password = "mySshPassword"

success = sftp:authenticate_pw("mySshLogin", password)
if not success then
    print(sftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

success = sftp:initialize_sftp()
if not success then
    print(sftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

-- Open the remote directory.  OpenDir returns a handle string.
local handle = sftp:open_dir("subdir")
if not sftp.last_method_success then
    print(sftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

print("Opened directory, handle = " .. handle)

-- The directory entries are read with ReadDirListing using this handle.

-- Close the handle when finished.
success = sftp:close_handle(handle)
if not success then
    print(sftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

sftp:disconnect()