Pascal (Lazarus/Delphi)

Control How FTP Directory Listings Are Requested

Demonstrates the AllowMlsd, PreferNlst, and ListOption properties, which control which listing command Chilkat uses and what options it passes.

Background: FTP has three listing commands with different trade-offs. MLSD is machine-readable and standardized, so AllowMlsd (on by default) prefers it when the server supports it. When it must fall back to the legacy commands, PreferNlst chooses names-only NLST over the fuller LIST, and ListOption appends flags such as -a (to include hidden files) literally to LIST. Together they adapt listing to a particular server's capabilities and conventions.

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Pascal (Lazarus/Delphi)

program ChilkatDemo;

// Demonstrates using the Chilkat Pascal wrapper via the C bridge DLL.
// Builds as a console application under Lazarus (FPC) or Delphi.

{$IFDEF FPC}
  {$MODE DELPHI}
{$ENDIF}
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}

uses
  {$IFDEF UNIX}
  cthreads,
  {$ENDIF}
  SysUtils,
  CkDllLoader,
  Chilkat.Ftp2;

// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

procedure RunDemo;
var
  success: Boolean;
  ftp: TFtp2;
  n: Integer;

begin
  success := False;

  ftp := TFtp2.Create;

  ftp.Hostname := 'ftp.example.com';
  ftp.Username := 'myFtpLogin';

  //  AllowMlsd (default True) requests machine-readable MLSD listings when the server advertises
  //  support.  MLSD is preferred because its format is standardized.
  ftp.AllowMlsd := True;

  //  PreferNlst (default False) chooses NLST over LIST when a legacy listing is needed and MLSD is
  //  unavailable.  NLST returns only names.
  ftp.PreferNlst := False;

  //  ListOption is appended literally to a legacy LIST command; "-a" sends "LIST -a" to include
  //  hidden files on Unix servers.
  ftp.ListOption := '-a';

  //  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';

  success := ftp.Connect();
  if (success = False) then
    begin
      WriteLn(ftp.LastErrorText);
      Exit;
    end;

  n := ftp.GetDirCount();
  WriteLn('Entries: ' + n);

  success := ftp.Disconnect();
  if (success = False) then
    begin
      WriteLn(ftp.LastErrorText);
      Exit;
    end;


  ftp.Free;

end;

// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

begin

  try
    RunDemo;
  except
    on E: Exception do
      WriteLn('Unhandled exception: ', E.ClassName, ': ', E.Message);
  end;

  WriteLn;
  {$IFDEF MSWINDOWS}
  WriteLn('Press Enter to exit...');
  ReadLn;
  {$ENDIF}
end.