Slow download using .GetFileToDirectory if directory has about 130.000 files

Hello,

I am currently having trouble downloading a small file from an FTP server using the WinSCP .NET assembly (C#).
I tried using the .GetFileToDirectory and .GetFiles method.
The WinSCP version I am using is 5.19.6 on Windows 10.

The problem is: It takes a long time to download a small file if the folder it is in has a lot of files in it.
In our case, it takes between 19 and 50 seconds to download a 21 KB file from a folder that has about 130.000 files in it.

From what I have read in other posts and could see in the log files, the method sends a "LIST" command upfront, which appears to be the cause of this delay.
This behavior is present both on a client FTP server and our own FTP server.
I have attached the log files we got from our FTP server using the .GetFileToDirectory method.

I have also tried adding the RawSetting "FtpUseMlsd". "0" resulted in "Could not retrieve file information" and "1" had no change.

Can you tell me if I can disable this list command? Or is there a better solution, how to download a specific file from a folder with thousands of files in it?

Regards Lukas

Thanks for the log. I'll look into it.

I have added this issue to the tracker:
Issue 2084 – Do not list remote directory when downloading file using FTP protocol with overwrite confirmations off

I'm sending you an email with a development version of WinSCP to the address you have used to register on this forum.

Hi martin, I have the same scenario here, can you help me about it? i'm trying to download about 2.6k files.

I'm using the method GetFilesToDirectory to, here is my code attached

I tried to recover the log, which even Lukas did, but I was not successful, please let me know case it's necessary considering that it's probably the same case.

Regards!

@tuliomarostegon: Please attach a full session log file showing the problem (using the latest version of WinSCP).

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Btw, this is pointless:
It's an ineffective way to do the same as
As the property name suggests, it's not best thing to do.

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Another thing is that you are not calling TransferOperationResult.Check.
See https://winscp.net/eng/docs/library_session#results