FtpWebRequest.ContentOffset Property

Definition

Gets or sets a byte offset into the file being downloaded by this request.

public long ContentOffset { get; set; }

Property Value

An Int64 instance that specifies the file offset, in bytes. The default value is zero.

Exceptions

A new value was specified for this property for a request that is already in progress.

The value specified for this property is less than zero.

Examples

The following code example demonstrates downloading part of a file from a server and appending the downloaded data to a local file.

public static bool RestartDownloadFromServer(string fileName, Uri serverUri, long offset)
{
    // The serverUri parameter should use the ftp:// scheme.
    // It identifies the server file that is to be downloaded
    // Example: ftp://contoso.com/someFile.txt.

    // The fileName parameter identifies the local file.
    //The serverUri parameter identifies the remote file.
    // The offset parameter specifies where in the server file to start reading data.

    if (serverUri.Scheme != Uri.UriSchemeFtp)
    {
        return false;
    }
    // Get the object used to communicate with the server.
    FtpWebRequest request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(serverUri);
    request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile;
    request.ContentOffset = offset;
    FtpWebResponse response = null;
    try
    {
        response = (FtpWebResponse) request.GetResponse();
    }
    catch (WebException e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine (e.Status);
        Console.WriteLine (e.Message);
        return false;
    }
    // Get the data stream from the response.
    Stream newFile = response.GetResponseStream();
    // Use a StreamReader to simplify reading the response data.
    StreamReader reader  = new StreamReader(newFile);
    string newFileData = reader.ReadToEnd();
    // Append the response data to the local file
    // using a StreamWriter.
    StreamWriter writer = File.AppendText(fileName);
    writer.Write(newFileData);
    // Display the status description.

    // Cleanup.
    writer.Close();
    reader.Close();
    response.Close();
    Console.WriteLine("Download restart - status: {0}",response.StatusDescription);
    return true;
}

Remarks

Set the ContentOffset property when downloading a file from an FTP server. This offset indicates the position in the server's file that marks the start of the data to be downloaded. The offset is specified as the number of bytes from the start of the file; the offset of the first byte is zero.

Setting ContentOffset causes the FtpWebRequest to send a restart (REST) command to the server. This command is ignored by most FTP server implementations if you are uploading data to the server.

Changing ContentOffset after calling the GetRequestStream, BeginGetRequestStream, GetResponse, or BeginGetResponse method causes an InvalidOperationException exception.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 2.0, 2.1

See also