Specify file pattern in pysftp get

Question

We can write a simple get like this:

import pysftp

hostname = "somehost"
user = "bob"       
password = "123456"  
filename = 'somefile.txt'

with pysftp.Connection(hostname, username=user, private_key='/home/private_key_file') as sftp:
    sftp.get(filename)

However, I want to specify a pattern in the filename, something like: '*.txt'

Any idea on how to do this using pysftp ?

Answer 1

There's no function to download files matching a file mask in pysftp.

You have to:

• list the directory, using Connection.listdir or Connection.walktree (if you need recursion)
• iterate the list of files, filtering the files you want
• call Connection.get individually for each.

---

• For a trivial implementation, see:
  List files on SFTP server matching wildcard in Python using Paramiko

  It's about Paramiko, but the file matching part will be the same with pysftp:

  import fnmatch
  

  for filename in sftp.listdir('/remote/path'):
      if fnmatch.fnmatch(filename, "*.txt"):
          sftp.get("/remote/path/" + filename, "/local/path/" + filename)
  

  Though your should really be using Paramiko anyway: pysftp vs. Paramiko

• For a recursive example (you have to add the file matching), see:
  Python pysftp get_r from Linux works fine on Linux but not on Windows.

• See also how Connection.get_d or Connection.get_r are implemented.