Recursive Directory Download With Paramiko?

I want to download a directory with unknown contents recursively via SSH and have been trying Paramiko. I have seen several examples how to upload directories but none that covers

Solution 1:

from stat import S_ISDIR

defisdir(path):
  try:
    return S_ISDIR(sftp.stat(path).st_mode)
  except IOError:
    #Path does not exist, so by definition not a directoryreturnFalse

...assuming sftp is an open Paramiko SFTP connection.

Solution 2:

An old question, but a solution I came up with that works quite well, it's a little bit sloppy (typecasting and slashes and all) - but it does work.

Note this uses fabric.api.local to make the directories in the destination.

def sftp_get_recursive(path, dest, sftp=sftp):
    item_list = sftp.listdir(path)
    dest = str(dest)

    ifnotos.path.isdir(dest):
        local("mkdir %s" % dest)

    for item in item_list:
        item = str(item)

        if is_directory(path + "/" + item, sftp):
            sftp_get_recursive(path + "/" + item, dest + "/" + item, sftp)
        else:
            sftp.get(path + "/" + item, dest + "/" + item)

Solution 3:

A small update to Dan LaManna's answer that works in 2021.

import paramiko
import os
from stat import S_ISDIR, S_ISREG    

def sftp_get_recursive(path, dest, sftp):
    item_list = sftp.listdir_attr(path)
    dest = str(dest)
    if not os.path.isdir(dest):
        os.makedirs(dest, exist_ok=True)
    for item in item_list:
        mode = item.st_mode
        if S_ISDIR(mode):
            sftp_get_recursive(path + "/" + item.filename, dest + "/" + item.filename, sftp)
        else:
            sftp.get(path + "/" + item.filename, dest + "/" + item.filename)

transport = paramiko.Transport((host, port))
transport.connect(username=username, password=password)
sftp = paramiko.SFTPClient.from_transport(transport)
sftp_get_recursive(remote_path, local_path, sftp)
sftp.close()

Solution 4:

Paramiko does not support recursive operations.

But it's easy to implement:

import os
from stat importS_ISDIR, S_ISREG

def get_r_portable(sftp, remotedir, localdir):
    for entry in sftp.listdir_attr(remotedir):
        remotepath = remotedir + "/" + entry.filename
        localpath = os.path.join(localdir, entry.filename)
        mode = entry.st_mode
        if S_ISDIR(mode):
            try:
                os.mkdir(localpath)
            except OSError:     
                pass
            get_r_portable(sftp, remotepath, localpath)
        elif S_ISREG(mode):
            sftp.get(remotepath, localpath)

---

You also can use pysftp. It's a wrapper around Paramiko that has more Python-ish look and feel and supports recursive operations. See

• pysftp.Connection.put_r()
• pysftp.Connection.get_r()

Or see my answer to Python pysftp get_r from Linux works fine on Linux but not on Windows.

But pysftp seems to be an abandoned project, so you better stick with Paramiko.

Solution 5:

You can use the stat() method of your sftp object:

http://www.lag.net/paramiko/docs/paramiko.SFTPClient-class.html