Re: Parsing FTP ls command results

Though others have pointed out the FTP text is variable, one way to parse the provided text into directory and file listings is as follows:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

while(<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    my @elements = split /\s+/, $_;
    if ( $elements[2] eq '<DIR>' ) {
        print "Directory: ",$elements[3], "\n";
    }
    else {
        print "The size of $elements[3] is $elements[2] bytes.\n";
    }
}

__DATA__
03-26-07  05:23AM       <DIR>          html
03-26-07  04:27AM       <DIR>          ibm-laptop
03-26-07  03:16AM       <DIR>          images
03-27-07  11:00PM                 6397 index.html
03-26-07  03:45AM                10186 index1.html
[download]

And if this code is run:

~/perl/monks$ ./parselist.pl 
Directory: html
Directory: ibm-laptop
Directory: images
The size of index.html is 6397 bytes.
The size of index1.html is 10186 bytes.
[download]

Comment on Re: Parsing FTP ls command results Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Parsing FTP ls command results by johngg (Canon) on Sep 13, 2007 at 12:44 UTC
I'm not sure how file names with spaces will be displayed by the FTP command but I would probably use the three argument form of split just to be safe. I would also use a list on the LHS rather than an array for readability. `my ($date, $time, $typeOrSize, $name) = split /\s+/, $_, 4;` [download] Cheers, JohnGG	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Parsing FTP ls command results by Anonymous Monk on May 04, 2009 at 00:58 UTC
thanks to you john... your comment help me so much, thanks again!	[reply]
Re^2: Parsing FTP ls command results by roboticus (Chancellor) on Dec 09, 2010 at 13:32 UTC
dwm042: Yes, but some FTP servers will give you some even uglier output, like: `125 List started OK. Volume Unit Date Ext Used Recfm Lrecl BlkSz Dsorg Dsname APCSPL 3380D 07/16/97 1 1 FB 80 8800 PS ETC.RPC APCSPL 3380D 08/03/97 1 1 FB 80 3200 PS ETC.SERVICES APCSPL 3380D 08/03/97 1 1 FB 80 3120 PS FTP.DATA APCSPL 3380D 08/02/97 1 1 F 158 158 PS HOSTS.ADDRINFO APCSPL 3380D 08/03/97 1 1 FB 80 3120 PS HOSTS.LOCAL APCSPL 3380D 07/30/97 1 1 F 56 56 PS HOSTS.SITEINFO 250 List completed successfully.` [download] So if you're trying to be tolerant of multiple FTP servers, be aware that you may have to have multiple parsers. (Note: The above was snipped from the IBM help pages.) ...roboticus When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.	[reply] [d/l]