Paramiko check if directory exists

Paramiko: Check if Directory Exists

To check if a directory exists using Paramiko, you can use the stat method of the SFTPClient class. The stat method retrieves information about a file or directory on the remote server.

import paramiko

# Create an SSH client
client = paramiko.SSHClient()

# Automatically add the remote server's host key
client.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())

# Connect to the remote server
client.connect('hostname', username='your_username', password='your_password')

# Create an SFTP client
sftp = client.open_sftp()

# Define the path of the directory you want to check
directory_path = '/home/username/directory_name'

try:
    # Retrieve information about the directory
    directory_details = sftp.stat(directory_path)

    # Check if the path represents a directory
    if directory_details.st_mode | INT_TYPE_IS_DIRECTORY:
        print("Directory exists")
    else:
        print("Not a directory")

except FileNotFoundError:
    print("Directory does not exist")

# Close the SFTP session and the SSH connection
sftp.close()
client.close()
  

In the above example, we first create an SSH client and connect to the remote server using the appropriate credentials. Then, we create an SFTP client using the SSH connection.

Next, we define the path of the directory we want to check in the directory_path variable. Inside the try block, we use the stat method to retrieve information about the directory. If the directory exists, the stat method will return the details of the directory. We then check if the st_mode attribute, representing the file mode and permissions, has the INT_TYPE_IS_DIRECTORY flag set. If it does, we print “Directory exists”. If not, we print “Not a directory”.

If the stat method raises a FileNotFoundError exception, it means the directory does not exist, and we print “Directory does not exist”.

Finally, we close the SFTP session and the SSH connection.