How to list all the folders and files in the directory after connecting through SFTP in Python

The SFTPClient.listdir returns everything, files and folders.

Were there folders, to tell them from the files, use SFTPClient.listdir_attr instead. It returns a collection of SFTPAttributes.

from stat import S_ISDIR, S_ISREG

for entry in sftp.listdir_attr(remotedir):    mode = entry.st_mode    if S_ISDIR(mode):        print(entry.filename + " is folder")    elif S_ISREG(mode):        print(entry.filename + " is file")

The accepted answer by @Oz123 is inefficient. SFTPClient.listdir internally calls SFTPClient.listdir_attr and throws most information away returning file and folder names only. The answer then uselessly and laboriously re-retrieves all that data by calling SFTPClient.lstat for each file.

See also How to fetch sizes of all SFTP files in a directory through Paramiko.

Obligatory warning: Do not use AutoAddPolicy – You are losing a protection against MITM attacks by doing so. For a correct solution, see Paramiko "Unknown Server".

One quick solution is to examine the output of lstat of each object in ftp.listdir().

Here is how you can list all the directories.

>>> for i in ftp.listdir():...     lstatout=str(ftp.lstat(i)).split()[0]...     if 'd' in lstatout: print i, 'is a directory'... 

Files are the opposite search:

>>> for i in ftp.listdir():...     lstatout=str(ftp.lstat(i)).split()[0]...     if 'd' not in lstatout: print i, 'is a file'... 

Here is a solution I have come up with. Based on https://stackoverflow.com/a/59109706 . My solution gives a pretty output.

Update I have modified it slightly to incorporate Martin's suggestions. Now my code is considerably fast compared to my initial version using isdir and listdir

# prefix components:space =  '    'branch = '│   '# pointers:tee =    '├── 'last =   '└── 'def stringpath(path):    # just a helper to get string of PosixPath    return str(path)from pathlib import Pathfrom stat import S_ISDIRdef tree_sftp(sftp, path='.', parent='/', prefix=''):    """    Loop through files to print it out    for file in tree_sftp(sftp):        print(file)    """    fullpath = Path(parent, path)    strpath = stringpath(fullpath)    dirs = sftp.listdir_attr(strpath)    pointers = [tee] * (len(dirs) - 1) + [last]    pdirs = [Path(fullpath, d.filename) for d in dirs]    sdirs = [stringpath(path) for path in pdirs]    for pointer, sd, d in zip(pointers, sdirs, dirs):        yield prefix + pointer + d.filename        if S_ISDIR(d.st_mode):            extension = branch if pointer == tee else space            yield from tree_sftp(sftp, sd, prefix=prefix + extension)

You can try it out like this using pysftp

import pysftpwith pysftp.Connection(HOSTNAME, USERNAME, PASSWORD) as sftp:    for file in tree_sftp(sftp):        print(file)

Let me know if if works for you.