Python FTP get the most recent file by date
ftp, ftplib, linux, python
Solution
With `NLST`, like shown in Martin Prikryl's response, you should use `sorted` method:
ftp = FTP(host="127.0.0.1", user="u",passwd="p")
ftp.cwd("/data")
file_name = sorted(ftp.nlst(), key=lambda x: ftp.voidcmd(f"MDTM {x}"))[-1]
Problem
I am using ftplib to connect to an ftp site. I want to get the most recently uploaded file and download it. I am able to connect to the ftp server and list the files, I also have put them in a list and got the `datefield` converted. Is there any function/module which can get the recent date and output the whole line from the list? ``` #!/usr/bin/env python import ftplib import os import socket import sys HOST = 'test' def main(): try: f = ftplib.FTP(HOST) except (socket.error, socket.gaierror), e: print 'cannot reach to %s' % HOST return print "Connect to ftp server" try: f.login('anonymous','al@ge.com') except ftplib.error_perm: print 'cannot login anonymously' f.quit() return print "logged on to the ftp server" data = [] f.dir(data.append) for line in data: datestr = ' '.join(line.split()[0:2]) orig-date = time.strptime(datestr, '%d-%m-%y %H:%M%p') f.quit() return if __name__ == '__main__': main() ``` RESOLVED: ``` data = [] f.dir(data.append) datelist = [] filelist = [] for line in data: col = line.split() datestr = ' '.join(line.split()[0:2]) date = time.strptime(datestr, '%m-%d-%y %H:%M%p') datelist.append(date) filelist.append(col[3]) combo = zip(datelist,filelist) who = dict(combo) for key in sorted(who.iterkeys(), reverse=True): print "%s: %s" % (key,who[key]) filename = who[key] print "file to download is %s" % filename try: f.retrbinary('RETR %s' % filename, open(filename, 'wb').write) except ftplib.err_perm: print "Error: cannot read file %s" % filename os.unlink(filename) else: print "***Downloaded*** %s " % filename return f.quit() return ``` One problem, is it possible to retrieve the first element from the dictionary? what I did here is that the for loop runs only once and exits thereby giving me the first sorted value which is fine, but I don't think it is a good practice to do it in this way..