[Python] Hints about a script that read ftp contents ....

On the ftp holding my web space (ftp server: ProFTPD 1.2.0pre10 ) a 'stat
*.pdf' command will list all pdf files in all sub directories recursively, (
and this is meant to be fairly standard,) unfortunately using ftp commands
directly shows up the server os dependent format that directories are listed
in ( usually UNIX ) but the functions to interpret this are in the ftp lib and
there's a more general interpretation module out there somewhere ( handles
more server os's )

With 'stat *.pdf' and classic ftplib I have this. Have you got same ?
WHere is the mistake ?

from ftplib import FTP
ftp = FTP('ftp.python.org') # connect to host, default port
ftp.login()
ftp.retrlines('stat *.pdf') # list directory contents
ftp.quit()

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

according to the info i've got reply '211' like all the '2??' replies are
confirmation of a correctly completed command?

'stat' transfers its result over the control socket, i think retrlines is
looking for a result on the data socket, which is what the 'list' command
does, or 'nlst' which just includes file names.

so:

from ftplib import FTP
ftp = FTP('ftp.python.org') # connect to host, default port
ftp.login()
a=ftp.sendcmd('stat *',a.append)
ftp.quit()
print a

or for a list;

from ftplib import FTP
ftp = FTP('ftp.python.org') # connect to host, default port
ftp.login()
a=[]
ftp.retrlines('list *',a.append)
ftp.quit()
print a

or for a file name list;

from ftplib import FTP
ftp = FTP('ftp.python.org') # connect to host, default port
ftp.login()
a=[]
ftp.retrlines('nlst *',a.append)
ftp.quit()
print a

unfortunately none of these do a recursive search if you add the extension
,so 'nlst *.pdf' only searches the current directory, but your going to have
to manipulate the list returned anyway so filtering pdf is trivial.

another idea

the distribution included module 'ftputil' has a walk function to move through
a ftp directory structure and apply a function to the directory/file name.

Is there a way to check if it is a directory or a file ?

I 'd like to build a function to make a walk-into in the
directories but I need a way to know if it is a directory or a file.

Could you give me any hints ?

Conatic

isn't that just a rewrite of the built-in walk function?

but if you want check ftputil again, it has a isdir() function that calls
'LIST' and interprets the result, this i think is what makes the walk function
very slow, since it has to call 'LIST' and make a new socket for the reply, a
very large number of times, a walk on my site ( 50 files 5 dirs. ) took
several minutes,

an idea.
a rewrite of walk that does 'CWD' (change working directory) and using the
reply code to tell retrospectively if its a directory, might not be a lot more
efficient, the current method has the benefit that it gets file size, dates
etc., but due the way its coded does a 'LIST' for each file!, for a walk you
only need to know if its a directory and you'll have to do a 'CWD' anyway,
also you don't generate any new sockets.

Is there a way to check if it is a directory or a file ?

I 'd like to build a function to make a walk-into in the
directories but I need a way to know if it is a direcyory or a file.

Could you give me any hints ?

Conatic