Implement FTP file browser using ftp_login + ftp_rawlist

gitbox 2025-05-26

1. Connect and log in to the FTP server

First, use ftp_connect to establish a connection to the FTP server, and then log in with the ftp_login function.

 <?php
// connect FTP server
$ftp_server = "gitbox.net";
$conn_id = ftp_connect($ftp_server);

if (!$conn_id) {
    die("无法connect到 FTP server $ftp_server");
}

// Log in
$ftp_user = "your_username";
$ftp_pass = "your_password";
if (!ftp_login($conn_id, $ftp_user, $ftp_pass)) {
    die("FTP Log in失败");
}

echo "成功connect并Log in到 $ftp_server\n";
?>

2. Get the directory list

After logging in successfully, we use ftp_rawlist to get the file and folder information in the directory.

 <?php
// Get the current directory list
$directory = "/";
$file_list = ftp_rawlist($conn_id, $directory);

if ($file_list === false) {
    die("Unable to get directory list");
}

// Output directory information
foreach ($file_list as $file) {
    echo $file . "<br>";
}
?>

Here is an array containing file details, similar to the output of the Linux ls -l command.

3. Parse the directory list

In order to make it easier to display, we need to parse the string returned by ftp_rawlist to distinguish files and directories.

 <?php
function parseFtpRawList($raw_list) {
    $items = [];
    foreach ($raw_list as $line) {
        $chunks = preg_split("/\s+/", $line, 9);
        if (count($chunks) === 9) {
            list($permissions, $number, $owner, $group, $size, $month, $day, $timeOrYear, $name) = $chunks;
            $items[] = [
                'permissions' => $permissions,
                'size' => $size,
                'name' => $name,
                'is_dir' => $permissions[0] === 'd',
                'raw' => $line,
            ];
        }
    }
    return $items;
}

$parsed_list = parseFtpRawList($file_list);
foreach ($parsed_list as $item) {
    echo ($item['is_dir'] ? "[DIR] " : "[FILE] ") . htmlspecialchars($item['name']) . "<br>";
}
?>

4. Implement simple browsing function

We can switch paths based on the directory name clicked by the user, and support recursive browsing.

 <?php
// pass GET Parameters to obtain the current directory
$current_dir = isset($_GET['dir']) ? $_GET['dir'] : "/";

// Avoid path crossing attacks
$current_dir = str_replace(["..", "//"], "", $current_dir);

$file_list = ftp_rawlist($conn_id, $current_dir);
$parsed_list = parseFtpRawList($file_list);

echo "<h2>Table of contents: " . htmlspecialchars($current_dir) . "</h2>";
echo "<ul>";

// 上级Table of contents链接
if ($current_dir !== "/") {
    $parent_dir = dirname($current_dir);
    if ($parent_dir == "\\") $parent_dir = "/";
    echo '<li><a href="?dir=' . urlencode($parent_dir) . '">[..]</a></li>';
}

foreach ($parsed_list as $item) {
    if ($item['is_dir']) {
        echo '<li>[DIR] <a href="?dir=' . urlencode(rtrim($current_dir, "/") . "/" . $item['name']) . '">' . htmlspecialchars($item['name']) . '</a></li>';
    } else {
        echo '<li>[FILE] ' . htmlspecialchars($item['name']) . '</li>';
    }
}
echo "</ul>";
?>

5. Disconnect FTP

After browsing, don't forget to close the connection.

 <?php
ftp_close($conn_id);
?>

Summarize

Through the above steps, we complete a simple FTP file browser based on PHP:

Connect and log in to the FTP server
Use ftp_rawlist to get directory content
Analyze and distinguish files from directories
Implement directory switching browsing

You can further expand functions based on this basis, such as file download, deletion, upload, etc. I hope this article can help you quickly get started with PHP FTP programming!