Recursive directory download with Paramiko?

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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 recursive download.

I can list all items in a directory but haven't been able to find a way of knowing if the item is a file (to download) or a directory (to call recursively).

transport = paramiko.Transport((MY_IP, 22))
transport.connect(username=MY_NAME, password=MY_PASS)
sftp = paramiko.SFTPClient.from_transport(transport)

file_list = sftp.listdir(path='/home/MY_HOME_DIR')
    for item in file_list:
        # Here is an item name... but is it a file or directory?
        print(item)
sftp.close()
transport.close()

So how do I know if an item is a file or if it is a directory?

paramiko ssh python
7 Answers

Paramiko does not support recursive operations.

But it's easy to implement:

import os
from stat import S_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

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.

user_8508480

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()
user_55363880

stat() method among other attributes returns permissions. d (for example drwxrwxrwx) shows that it is directory.

As example:

dir = oct(sftp.stat(path).st_mode)
print dir[0:2]

output interpritation: 01 fifo 02 character special 04 directory 06 block special 10 regular file 12 symbolic link 14 socket

user_12683280
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