here:

getFtpList <- function(ftp){
# column 1= literal string first position mean file
# column 2= number 1
 # column 3 =owner
# column 4 = group
# column 5 =file size
 # colmn  6 =Month
# column 7 =Day
# column 8 =Time (year)
 # column 9 =FileName
#
txt <- getURL(ftp)

dir <- read.table( textConnection(txt),as.is=TRUE)

if(ncol(dir)==9)out <- data.frame(Dir=ftp,Filename=dir[,
ncol(dir)],Size=dir[ ,5],
                  Month=dir[ ,6],Day=dir[ ,7],Time=dir[
,8],stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
if(ncol(dir)==4)out <- data.frame(Dir=ftp,Filename=dir[,
ncol(dir)],Size=dir[ ,3],
                  Month=dir[ ,1],Time=dir[ ,2],stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
closeAllConnections()
    return(out)
}

On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 9:56 AM, Baoqiang Cao <bqcaomail@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks Steven!
> It is excellent code indeed!
>
> On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 11:26 AM, steven mosher <moshersteven@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >  I would use RCurl.
> >
> >  if you have, for example, the url of an ftp site you can merely do a
> > getURL() and the contents will be returned. That call will return data
> that
> > can be coerced into a data.frame that will look like a directory
> structure
> > listing the file names.
> >
> > If you need code just ask, but the RCurl docs are pretty good.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 8:10 AM, Baoqiang Cao <bqcaomail@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I'd like to download some data files from a remote server, the problem
> >> here is that some of the files actually don't exist, which I don't
> >> know before try. Just wondering if a function in R could tell me if a
> >> file exists on a remote server? I searched this mailing list and after
> >> read severals mails, still clueless.  Any help will be highly
> >> appreciated.
> >>
> >> B.C.
> >>
> >> ______________________________________________
> >> R-help@r-project.org mailing list
> >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> >> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> >> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> >> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> >
> >
>

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