What Is the Ftp Command for Deleting Multiple Files as Once?
I'm Trying to Run This Command via Ftp in Order to Delete Some Files I Have Stored in a Folder in My Website: Del *. Csv However This Doesn't Work and I Don't...
I'm trying to run this command via FTP in order to delete some files I have stored in a folder in my website:
DEL *.csv
However this doesn't work and I don't know why. However if I try to delete every single file this works:
DEL file.csv (works)
How could I do in order to solve this issue?
4 Answers
If you're using the Windows command-line ftp client, then you will need to use mdelete to delete multiple files, as delete will only delete a single file.
Edit: Answering the additional questions in the comments.
If you want to put these commands in a file so that you can perform them as some kind of batch process, you could create a text file and put the commands in sequence there:
prompt
mdel *
quit
Then you could run this as a single step with the -s parameter.
To use mdelete use the syntax below to automate the process
At the FTP> use the "prompt" command to disable interaction (mode off)
Type this command:
- FTP> mdelete [directory] *.extenstion |yes
For example, mdelete standard *.jpg |yes
With Windows 7:
The existing answer will work only partially. To delete more files at once without confirmation from the server we must connect to the server with the command:
ftp -i yourwebsite
So after you connect with that command, you can use mdelete at the FTP prompt:
mdelete *.html
This is an example for an inline multidelete ftp script, added bonus an aritmetic YYYYMM variable. Use prompt to disable an interactive prompt query.
#!/bin/sh
## Delete files from FTP server
HOST=11.22.33.44
USER=myuser
PWD="mypwd"
YM=$(date +'%Y%m')
YM=$(( $YM-3 ))
echo YearMonth $YM
ftp -p -n $HOST <<END_SCRIPT
quote USER $USER
quote PASS $PWD
prompt
mdel prefix${YM}*.zip
quit
END_SCRIPT
exit 0
Sarah Jenkins is a veteran tech journalist with over 12 years of experience covering artificial intelligence, mobile innovations, and digital ethics. Her insights have appeared in leading technology publications worldwide.
