List and download all files in a directory through sftp with php / ssh2. In my example i use scandir to list the files and ssh2_scp_recv to grab a file. I've found a lot of examples using fopen to grab the remote file, that didn't work for me and i found the code below cleaner than the fopen option. For an example on how to do the same as my exa…

list_and_download_files_through_sftp_with_php.php

<?php

$username = "your_username";
$password = "your_pass";
$url      = 'your_stp_server_url';

// Make our connection
$connection = ssh2_connect($url);
 
// Authenticate
if (!ssh2_auth_password($connection, $username, $password)) throw new Exception('Unable to connect.');
 
// Create our SFTP resource
if (!$sftp = ssh2_sftp($connection)) throw new Exception('Unable to create SFTP connection.');

$localDir  = '/path/to/your/local/dir';
$remoteDir = '/path/to/your/remote/dir';

// download all the files
$files    = scandir('ssh2.sftp://' . $sftp . $remoteDir);
if (!empty($files)) {
  foreach ($files as $file) {
    if ($file != '.' && $file != '..') {
      ssh2_scp_recv($connection, "$remoteDir/$file", "$localDir/$file");
    }
  }
}

?>

Works great!

thanks

Great !

What if i just need to list directory rather than downloading !
Downloading takes huge time !
Pls let me know.
thanks

@cbvora just echo $file in the foreach loop to list the files in the given dir.

Please replay me ASAP

Hello, the scipt is not iterating over the loop, pausing at the 1st file it gets from the files lists. and the 1st file which is copied also has no content inside it.

Can this be modified to download a X number of files instead of all the files???

@belgareth That should be easy to do, not sure why you want to do that but keep a count in the foreach and break out of the foreach with break; when your desired number of download has been reached. http://php.net/manual/en/control-structures.break.php

Just what I needed. A remote download via SSH

Suddenly, it doesn't work for files with tab in the name