Unexpected directory listing line ‘…’

You will get the error with SCP protocol, if output of ls command cannot be parsed by WinSCP. WinSCP expects listing in format:

<type><permissions> <inode> <owner> <group> <size> <timestamp> <filename>[ -> <target>]

Some common examples:

drw-r--r--    3 martinp users        4596 2007-06-06 11:18:33.000000000 +0200 private

lrwxrwxrwx    1 martinp users           4 Mar 24  2005 wiki -> dokuwiki

drwxr-xr-x+   2 martinp users          96 Oct 26 14:58 httpdocs

If your listing does not correspond to some of the above:

Try using SFTP protocol instead of SCP.
Always make sure you are using the latest version of WinSCP, as support for different listing format is being added continuously.
Alter output of ls command to match any of the supported formatting. WinSCP has few session options that may be used for that, including:
- Listing command (e.g. use sed to modify output of ls command to match the WinSCP requirements);
- Clear aliases (may help if the ls command is aliased to display non standard output) and
- Clear national variables (may help if your listing does not use English month names).
Make sure you are using bash shell. If you do not want to set it as your default shell, force it for WinSCP sessions.

Documentation