The following example demonstrates how to make a directory on a FTP server using Apache Commons Net library.

To create a directory on the FTP server, use the following method of the FTPClient class:

boolean makeDirectory(String pathname)

where pathname is path of the directory to be created. Path can be relative or absolute. For example, the following statement:

makeDirectory(“upload”)

will create a directory “upload” relative to the current directory. But the following statement:

makeDirectory(“/upload”)

will create the “upload” directory under server’s root directory, because if the path name begins with a forward slash, it denotes an absolute path.

We can also specify a path structure like this:

makeDirectory(“/upload/projects/java”)

That will create the directory “java” under the “/upload/projects” directory which must exist.

The method returns true if the directory is created successfully, otherwise returns false. So it’s recommended to check return value of this method as follows: 

boolean created = makeDirectory("/upload/projects/java")

if (created) {

	// the directory is created, everything is going well

} else {

	// something unexpected happened...
}

 

Following is a sample program that logins to a FTP server and creates a directory called “upload123” under server’s root directory:

import java.io.IOException;
import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPClient;
import org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPReply;

public class FTPCreateDirDemo {
    private static void showServerReply(FTPClient ftpClient) {
        String[] replies = ftpClient.getReplyStrings();
        if (replies != null && replies.length > 0) {
            for (String aReply : replies) {
                System.out.println("SERVER: " + aReply);
            }
        }
    }
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String server = "www.yourserver.com";
        int port = 21;
        String user = "username";
        String pass = "password";
        FTPClient ftpClient = new FTPClient();
        try {
            ftpClient.connect(server, port);
            showServerReply(ftpClient);
            int replyCode = ftpClient.getReplyCode();
            if (!FTPReply.isPositiveCompletion(replyCode)) {
                System.out.println("Operation failed. Server reply code: " + replyCode);
                return;
            }
            boolean success = ftpClient.login(user, pass);
            showServerReply(ftpClient);
            if (!success) {
                System.out.println("Could not login to the server");
                return;
            }
            // Creates a directory
            String dirToCreate = "/upload123";
            success = ftpClient.makeDirectory(dirToCreate);
            showServerReply(ftpClient);
            if (success) {
                System.out.println("Successfully created directory: " + dirToCreate);
            } else {
                System.out.println("Failed to create directory. See server's reply.");
            }
            // logs out
            ftpClient.logout();
            ftpClient.disconnect();
        } catch (IOException ex) {
            System.out.println("Oops! Something wrong happened");
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

 Compile and run the program:

If you want to create a directory whose path like this: /projects/java/ftp/demo, but the parent directories do not exist, consult this article: Creating nested directory structure on a FTP server.

Download latest version of Apache Commons Net library.

 

Related Java FTP Tutorials:

• Creating nested directory structure on a FTP server
• Determine if a directory or file exists on FTP server
• Java FTP example - Change working directory
• Remove an empty directory on a FTP server
• Rename file or directory on FTP server

 

Other Java FTP Tutorials:

• Java FTP list files and directories example
• Java FTP file download tutorial and example
• Java FTP file upload tutorial and example
• Java FTP delete file example
• Java FTP example - Search for files and directories
• How to upload a directory to a FTP server
• How to download a complete folder from a FTP server