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cfftp: Opening and closing FTP server connections

Last update:
May 18, 2026

Description

To establish a connection with an FTP server, use the open action with a connection attribute.

Syntax

<cfftp  
action = "open|close|quote|site|allo|acct" 
actionparam = "command or account information"  
buffersize = "number"  
connection = "name"  
passive = "yes|no"  
password = "password"  
port = "port"  
proxyServer = "proxy server"  
retryCount = "number"  
server = "server"  
stopOnError = "yes|no" 
systemtype = "windows | unix" 
timeout = "time-sout in seconds"  
username = "name"
result="variable to put the result in">

cfscript equivalent of the syntax

<cfscript> 
    cfftp(action = "open|close|quote|site|allo|acct", actionparam = "command or account information" , buffersize = "number" , connection = "name" , passive = "yes|no" , password = "password" , port = "port" , proxyServer = "proxy server" , retryCount = "number" , server = "server" , stopOnError = "yes|no", systemtype = "windows | unix", timeout = "time-sout in seconds" , username = "name") 
</cfscript>
Note: You can specify this tag's attributes in an attributeCollection attribute whose value is a structure. Specify the structure name in the attributeCollection attribute and use the tag's attribute names as structure keys.

See also

cfhttp, cfldap, cfmail, cfpop

Attributes

Attribute
Req/Opt
Default
Description
action
Required
FTP operation to perform.
  • open: creates an FTP connection.
  • close: terminates an FTP connection.
  • quote: sends a command verbatim to the FTP server.
  • site: executes a site-specific command.
  • allo: allocates memory for operations, such as putting large files, on the server.
  • acct: sends account information on systems that require it.
actionparam
Optional
Used only when action is quote, site, or acct. Specifies the command when action is quote or site; specifies account information when action is acct.
buffersize
Optional
Buffer size in bytes.
connection
Optional, but always used with open or close
Name of the FTP connection. If you specify the username, password, and server attributes, and if no connection exists for them, ColdFusion creates one. Calls to cfftp with the same connection name reuse the connection.
passive
Optional
no
  • yes: enables passive mode.
  • no
password
Required if action = "open"
Password to log in the user.
port
Optional
21
Remote port to which to connect.
proxyServer
Optional
String. Name of proxy server (or servers) to use, if proxy access is specified.
retryCount
Optional
1
Number of retries until failure is reported.
server
Required if action = "open"
FTP server to which to connect; for example, ftp.myserver.com.
stopOnError
Optional
yes
  • yes: halts processing, displays an appropriate error.
  • no: if secure="no", populates these variables:
  • cfftp.succeeded: yes or no.
  • cfftp.replyCode: error number. See the IETF Network Working Group RFC 959: File Transfer Protocol (FTP) at www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0959.txt.
  • cfftp.replyText: Message text. For conditional operations, use cfftp.replyCode. Do not use cfftp.replyText for this purpose.
systemType
Optional
Possible values for the attribute are:
  • Windows: If specified, CFFTP treats the response as Windows-style directory listing.
  • Unix: If specified, CFFTP treats the response as Unix-Style directory listing.
timeout
Optional
30
Value in seconds for the time-out of all operations, including individual data request operations.
username
Required if action = "open"
User name to pass in the FTP operation.

Usage

When you establish a connection with cfftp action="open" and specify a name in the connection attribute, ColdFusion caches the connection so that you can reuse it to perform additional FTP operations. When you use a cached connection for subsequent FTP operations, you do not have to specify the username, password, or server connection attributes. The FTP operations that use the same connection name automatically use the information stored in the cached connection. Using a cached connection helps save connection time and improves file transfer performance. You do not need to open a connection for single, simple, FTP operations, such as GetFile or PutFile.

With any action except close, you can set the internal buffer size by specifying buffersize. If you specify quote, site, allo, or acct as the action and set secure="yes" an error is generated. You specify the command to send to the FTP server in the actionparam attribute when you specify site or quote as the action. When site is the action, you use the actionparam attribute to specify the site-specific information.

To keep a connection open throughout a session or longer, put the connection name in the Session or Application scope; for example, specify connection="Session.FTPConnection". However, if you do this, you must specify the full variable name in all FTP operations, and you must use the close action when you are finished. Keeping a connection open prevents others from using the FTP server; so close a connection as soon as possible. If you do not assign the connection name to Session or Application variable, the connection remains open for the current page only, and you do not have to close it manually. Changes to a cached connection, such as changing retryCount or timeout values, might require reestablishing the connection.

Example

<p>cfftp lets users implement File Transfer Protocol operations. By default, cfftp caches 
an open connection to an FTP server.</p> 
<p>cfftp operations are usually of two types:</p> 
<ul> 
<li>Establishing a connection 
<li>Performing file and directory operations 
</ul> 
<p>This example opens and verifies a connection, lists the files in a directory, and closes 
the connection.</p> 
<p>Open a connection</p> 
<cfftp action = "open" 
username = "anonymous" 
connection = "My_query" 
password = "youremail@email.com" 
server = "ftp.tucows.com" 
stopOnError = "Yes"> 
<p>Did it succeed? <cfoutput>#cfftp.succeeded#</cfoutput> 
<p>List the files in a directory: 
<cfftp action = "LISTDIR" 
stopOnError = "Yes" 
name = "ListFiles" 
directory = "/" 
connection = "my_query"> 
<cfoutput query = "ListFiles"> 
#name#<br> 
</cfoutput> 

<p>Close the connection:</p> 
<cfftp action = "close" 
connection = "My_query" 
stopOnError = "Yes"> 
<p>Did it succeed? <cfoutput>#cfftp.succeeded#</cfoutput>

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