How can I use FTP to move files between directories?

Question

I have a program that needs to move a file from one directory to another on an FTP server. For example, the file is in:

ftp://1.1.1.1/MAIN/Dir1

and I need to move the file to:

ftp://1.1.1.1/MAIN/Dir2

I found a couple of articles recommending use of the Rename command, so I tried the following:

    Uri serverFile = new Uri(“ftp://1.1.1.1/MAIN/Dir1/MyFile.txt");
    FtpWebRequest reqFTP= (FtpWebRequest)FtpWebRequest.Create(serverFile);
    reqFTP.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.Rename;
    reqFTP.UseBinary = true;
    reqFTP.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(ftpUser, ftpPass);
    reqFTP.RenameTo = “ftp://1.1.1.1/MAIN/Dir2/MyFile.txt";

    FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)reqFTP.GetResponse();

But this doesn’t seem to work – I get the following error:

The remote server returned an error: (550) File unavailable (e.g., file not found, no access).

At first I thought this might relate to permissions, but as far as I can see, I have permissions to the entire FTP site (it is on my local PC and the uri is resolved to localhost).

Should it be possible to move files between directories like this, and if not, how is it possible?

To address some of the point / suggestions that have been raised:

1. I can download the same file from the source directory, so it definitely exists (what I'm doing is downloading the file first, and then moving it somewhere else).
2. I can access the ftp site from a browser (both the source and target directory)
3. The ftp server is running under my own IIS instance on my local machine.
4. The path and case are correct and there are no special characters.

Additionally, I have tried setting the directory path to be:

ftp://1.1.1.1/%2fMAIN/Dir1/MyFile.txt

Both for the source and target path - but this makes no difference either.

I found this article, which seems to say that specifying the destination as a relative path would help - it doesn't appear to be possible to specify an absolute path as the destination.

reqFTP.RenameTo = “../Dir2/MyFile.txt";

Answer 1

Had the same problem and found another way to solve the problem:

public string FtpRename( string source, string destination ) {
        if ( source == destination )
            return;

        Uri uriSource = new Uri( this.Hostname + "/" + source ), UriKind.Absolute );
        Uri uriDestination = new Uri( this.Hostname + "/" + destination ), UriKind.Absolute );

        // Do the files exist?
        if ( !FtpFileExists( uriSource.AbsolutePath ) ) {
            throw ( new FileNotFoundException( string.Format( "Source '{0}' not found!", uriSource.AbsolutePath ) ) );
        }

        if ( FtpFileExists( uriDestination.AbsolutePath ) ) {
            throw ( new ApplicationException( string.Format( "Target '{0}' already exists!", uriDestination.AbsolutePath ) ) );
        }

        Uri targetUriRelative = uriSource.MakeRelativeUri( uriDestination );


        //perform rename
        FtpWebRequest ftp = GetRequest( uriSource.AbsoluteUri );
        ftp.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.Rename;
        ftp.RenameTo = Uri.UnescapeDataString( targetUriRelative.OriginalString );

        FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)ftp.GetResponse(); 

        return response.StatusDescription; 

    }