curl / libcurl / API / curl_easy_setopt / CURLOPT_DIRLISTONLY

CURLOPT_DIRLISTONLY explained

Name

CURLOPT_DIRLISTONLY - ask for names only in a directory listing

Synopsis

#include <curl/curl.h>
 
CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_DIRLISTONLY, long listonly);

Description

For FTP and SFTP based URLs a parameter set to 1 tells the library to list the names of files in a directory, rather than performing a full directory listing that would normally include file sizes, dates etc.

For POP3 a parameter of 1 tells the library to list the email message or messages on the POP3 server. This can be used to change the default behavior of libcurl, when combined with a URL that contains a message ID, to perform a "scan listing" which can then be used to determine the size of an email.

For FILE, this option has no effect yet as directories are always listed in this mode.

Note: For FTP this causes a NLST command to be sent to the FTP server. Beware that some FTP servers list only files in their response to NLST; they might not include subdirectories and symbolic links.

Setting this option to 1 also implies a directory listing even if the URL does not end with a slash, which otherwise is necessary.

Do not use this option if you also use CURLOPT_WILDCARDMATCH as it effectively breaks that feature.

Default

0, disabled

Protocols

This functionality affects ftp, pop3 and sftp

Example

int main(void)
{
  CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
  if(curl) {
    CURLcode res;
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "ftp://example.com/dir/");
 
    /* list only */
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_DIRLISTONLY, 1L);
 
    res = curl_easy_perform(curl);
 
    curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
  }
}

History

This option was known as CURLOPT_FTPLISTONLY up to 7.16.4. POP3 is supported since 7.21.5.

Availability

Added in curl 7.17.0

Return value

Returns CURLE_OK if the option is supported, and CURLE_UNKNOWN_OPTION if not.