CURLOPT_FTP_FILEMETHOD(3) Library Functions Manual CURLOPT_FTP_FILEMETHOD(3)
NAME
CURLOPT_FTP_FILEMETHOD - select directory traversing method for FTP
SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>
CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_FTP_FILEMETHOD,
long method);
DESCRIPTION
Pass a long telling libcurl which method to use to reach a file on a
FTP(S) server.
This option exists because some server implementations are not compliant
to what the standards say should work.
The argument should be one of the following alternatives:
CURLFTPMETHOD_MULTICWD
libcurl does a single CWD operation for each path part in the
given URL. For deep hierarchies this means many commands. This is
how RFC 1738 says it should be done. This is the default but the
slowest behavior.
CURLFTPMETHOD_NOCWD
libcurl makes no CWD at all. libcurl does SIZE, RETR, STOR etc
and gives a full path to the server for all these commands. This
is the fastest behavior since it skips having to change directo-
ries.
CURLFTPMETHOD_SINGLECWD
libcurl does one CWD with the full target directory and then op-
erates on the file &"normally" (like in the multicwd case). This
is somewhat more standards compliant than 'nocwd' but without the
full penalty of 'multicwd'.
DEFAULT
CURLFTPMETHOD_MULTICWD
PROTOCOLS
This functionality affects ftp only
EXAMPLE
int main(void)
{
CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
if(curl) {
CURLcode res;
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "ftp://example.com/1/2/3/4/new.txt");
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_FTP_FILEMETHOD,
(long)CURLFTPMETHOD_SINGLECWD);
res = curl_easy_perform(curl);
curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
}
}
AVAILABILITY
Added in curl 7.15.1
RETURN VALUE
curl_easy_setopt(3) returns a CURLcode indicating success or error.
CURLE_OK (0) means everything was OK, non-zero means an error occurred,
see libcurl-errors(3).
SEE ALSO
CURLOPT_DIRLISTONLY(3), CURLOPT_FTP_SKIP_PASV_IP(3)
libcurl 2026-07-12 CURLOPT_FTP_FILEMETHOD(3)
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