CURLOPT_FTP_CREATE_MISSING_DIRS(3) Introduction to Library Functions

NAME

CURLOPT_FTP_CREATE_MISSING_DIRS - create missing directories for FTP
and SFTP

SYNOPSIS

#include <curl/curl.h>

#define CURLFTP_CREATE_DIR_NONE 0L
#define CURLFTP_CREATE_DIR 1L
#define CURLFTP_CREATE_DIR_RETRY 2L

CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_FTP_CREATE_MISSING_DIRS,
long create);

DESCRIPTION

Pass a long telling libcurl to create the dir. If the value is
CURLFTP_CREATE_DIR (1), libcurl may create any remote directory that
it fails to "move" into.

For FTP requests, that means a CWD command fails. CWD being the
command that changes working directory.

For SFTP requests, libcurl may create the remote directory if it
cannot obtain a handle to the target-location. The creation fails if
a file of the same name as the directory to create already exists or
lack of permissions prevents creation.

Setting create to CURLFTP_CREATE_DIR_RETRY (2), tells libcurl to
retry the CWD command again if the subsequent MKD command fails. This
is especially useful if you are doing many simultaneous connections
against the same server and they all have this option enabled, as
then CWD may first fail but then another connection does MKD before
this connection and thus MKD fails but trying CWD works.

DEFAULT

CURLFTP_CREATE_DIR_NONE (0)

PROTOCOLS

This functionality affects ftp only

EXAMPLE

int main(void)
{
CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
if(curl) {
CURLcode result;
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL,
"ftp://example.com/non-existing/new.txt");
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_FTP_CREATE_MISSING_DIRS,
CURLFTP_CREATE_DIR_RETRY);

result = curl_easy_perform(curl);

curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
}
}

HISTORY

CURLFTP_CREATE_* enums became long types in 8.16.0, prior to this
version a long cast was necessary when passed to curl_easy_setopt(3).

AVAILABILITY

Added in curl 7.10.7

RETURN VALUE

curl_easy_setopt(3) returns a CURLcode indicating success or error.

CURLE_OK (0) means everything was OK, non-zero means an error
occurred, see libcurl-errors(3).

SEE ALSO

CURLOPT_FTP_FILEMETHOD(3), CURLOPT_FTP_USE_EPSV(3)

libcurl 2026-01-08
CURLOPT_FTP_CREATE_MISSING_DIRS(3)