Linux – Delete recursive directories with FTP command on Bash

bashftplinux

I have a problem with my infrastructure here.

I am in a closed DMZ and have to access a FTP-Server in another DMZ from a headless Suse Linux 10.1.

So i think i only got the ftp command.. But i have to delete a directory with about 100 subdirectorys and endless files in it..

When I type

del directory

it returns "Its not empty" and so i have to delete each sub directory and file manually.

Oh please tell me a way how i can do this automatically 🙂

Best Answer

Use lftp. The the -r option to lftp rm recursively deletes directories and files.

$ lftp -u <user>,<pass> <server> 
lftp> rm -r <directory>

should do the trick.

Related Solutions

Ftp – Using wget to recursively download whole FTP directories

Try -m for --mirror

wget -m ftp://username:password@ip.of.old.host

Bash – delete file on ftp server using bash commands

You can use lftp as a non interactive ftp client from within the bash scripts.

Or assuming you have a fairly sane and modern distribution you could use curlftpfs FUSE filesystem to mount the ftp server folder as a local folder then use bash to do the logical bits you need to to, then unmount the ftp server.

This effectively takes away the complexity of having the files only available over ftp as the script will see the files as available locally.

There are plenty of examples available on how to delete files based on name or date, and there is an example on the curlftpfs site on how to mount and unmount file systems in scripts.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ftp – Using wget to recursively download whole FTP directories

Bash – delete file on ftp server using bash commands

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