Ftp directory listing

[Arjay]

I'm attempting to get a detailed directory listing from an Ftp server.

When I navigate to the directory in IE, I get

09/07/2009 07:48AM      Directory 090609
09/08/2009 07:38AM      Directory 090610
01/01/1980 12:00AM      Directory 930101
08/10/2009 11:21PM      Directory 090513
08/12/2009 07:44AM      Directory 090514
08/13/2009 07:38AM      Directory 090515
08/14/2009 07:47AM      Directory 090516
08/15/2009 07:50AM      Directory 090517
08/16/2009 07:55AM      Directory 090518
08/17/2009 07:41AM      Directory 090519
08/18/2009 07:42AM      Directory 090520
08/19/2009 08:06AM      Directory 090521
08/20/2009 07:47AM      Directory 090522
08/21/2009 07:43AM      Directory 090523
08/22/2009 07:58AM      Directory 090524

However, when I retrieve it in code, it appears as:

dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Jan  1  1980 .
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Jan  1  1980 ..
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Sep  7 07:48 090609
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Sep  8 07:38 090610
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Jan  1  1980 930101
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 10 23:21 090513
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 12 07:44 090514
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 13 07:38 090515
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 14 07:47 090516
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 15 07:50 090517
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 16 07:55 090518
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 17 07:41 090519
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 18 07:42 090520
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 19 08:06 090521
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 20 07:47 090522
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 21 07:43 090523
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 22 07:58 090524

The main issue is that the complete date isn't appearing.

Here's the code I'm using.

FtpWebRequest ftpclientRequest = WebRequest.Create( args[ 0 ] ) asFtpWebRequest;

ftpclientRequest.Credentials = newNetworkCredential( "un", "pw" );
ftpclientRequest.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectoryDetails;
ftpclientRequest.Proxy = null;
 
using( FtpWebResponse response = ftpclientRequest.GetResponse( ) asFtpWebResponse )
{
  StreamReader sr = newStreamReader( response.GetResponseStream( ), System.Text.Encoding.ASCII );
  string datastring = sr.ReadToEnd( );
}

Any idea how I could retrieve the data as it appears in IE (actually all I need is the complete date and the directory name entries).

Thanks.

[vcdebugger]

090513 - extract the 1st 2 digits which is the year - 2009
and month / date you already have it...

[Arjay]

090513 - extract the 1st 2 digits which is the year - 2009
and month / date you already have it...

No I don't. While the directory names appear to be related to a date, they aren't.

[Ajay Vijay]

That depends on directory listing format provided by FTP server. For current century, it's not giving 2-extra digits.

See the attached file, which parses the directory listing from various format. You need to spend some time, to understand how it's working!

Find IsUNIXStyleListing in the file, and see comments above it.

[monalin]

09/07/2009 07:48AM      Directory 090609

dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Sep  7 07:48 090609

Seems like you're missing the Year somehow all the other data is there.

But what i find interesting is this

01/01/1980 12:00AM      Directory 930101

dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Jan  1  1980 930101

This one has a year but no time...

[Arjay]

Thanks for looking into this, guys.

My original post didn't include enough of the directory sample.

The snippet below is what IE shows me when I navigate to the ftp folder.

09/21/2009 07:40AM      Directory 090623
09/22/2009 07:44AM      Directory 090624
09/23/2009 07:39AM      Directory 090625
09/24/2009 07:37AM      Directory 090626
09/25/2009 07:41AM      Directory 090627
09/26/2008 07:58AM      Directory 090628
09/27/2008 08:00AM      Directory 090629
09/28/2008 07:40AM      Directory 090630
09/29/2008 07:44AM      Directory 090701
09/30/2008 07:40AM      Directory 090702
10/01/2008 07:48AM      Directory 090703

Notice the highlighted date in red and how how the date is from a year ago?

The whole reason for my code is that I'm trying to detect an older date than present.

I figured if I can read the directory listing like how Internet Explorer does, then I can parse the data and detect the older date.

As mentioned before, the problem is that when I progammatically read the data, it comes back without the complete date

 
dr--rw----   1 admin      data                0 Aug 14 07:47 090516

@Ajay. It is indeed Unix (TinyFtp), and thanks for your reply but the issue isn't parsing the data. The problem is that the data doesn't come back with what I need.

Is there another approach that I can take that will allow me to retrieve the data like I see in Internet Explorer?

[MadHatter]

ftp has two different types of directory listing commands, NLST and LIST. It could be that the api is using list and explorer is using nlst (which I think returns more info).

[Arjay]

Thanks MadHatter. Here's what the Ftp commands are defined as:

publicconststring AppendFile = "APPE";
publicconststring DeleteFile = "DELE";
publicconststring DownloadFile = "RETR";
publicconststring GetDateTimestamp = "MDTM";
publicconststring GetFileSize = "SIZE";
publicconststring ListDirectory = "NLST";
publicconststring ListDirectoryDetails = "LIST";
publicconststring MakeDirectory = "MKD";
publicconststring PrintWorkingDirectory = "PWD";
publicconststring RemoveDirectory = "RMD";
publicconststring Rename = "RENAME";
publicconststring UploadFile = "STOR";
publicconststring UploadFileWithUniqueName = "STOU";

I've tried all the appropriate ones.

At any rate, I ended up solving the problem another way.

Thanks everyone.