Robust SFTP Interface Using 'curl'

Provides a high-level, object-oriented interface for Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) operations built upon the 'curl' package. The package implements an 'R6' class to manage persistent connections and provides 'tidyverse'-style functions for common file system tasks. Key features include recursive directory creation with idempotency support, "smart" local path resolution that distinguishes between files and directories, and the ability to download remote resources directly into memory as raw vectors for seamless integration into data processing pipelines. It is designed to handle common SFTP edge cases gracefully, providing informative error messages and robust path sanitization to ensure compatibility across different server configurations.

sftpR

Robust SFTP tool kit for R, built on top of curl.

This package is inspired by sftp, with modernized updates that shifts from the legacy RCurl to the more secure curl that is still issue-tracked and maintained, a more robust handling of inputs and paths, and more secure management of user credentials.

sftpR leverages an R6 class for connection that safely stores user credential and a reusable curl handle for generic SFTP operations such as download and listing directories, and interal methods to create purpose-driven handles for more specific SFTP operations (upload, delete, rename, etc).

Installation

You can install the development version of sftpR here:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("mikuo0628/sftpR")

Quick Start

# Establish connection (see ?sftp_connect for detail)
sftp_conn <- 
  sftp_connect(
    hostname = "127.0.0.1",
    port     = "2222",
    user     = "tester",
    password = "password123"
  )

# List a remote directory
sftp_list(sftp_conn, .recursive = T)
sftp_list(sftp_conn, "127.0.0.1/upload", .recursive = T)

# Upload
## a data frame
sftp_upload(sftp_conn, local_file = mtcars, "upload/mtcars.csv")
## a local file
sftp_upload(sftp_conn, local_file = "/home/path/file.txt", "upload/file.txt")

# Download
sftp_download(sftp_conn, "upload/file.txt")

# Create a remote directory
sftp_mkdir(sftp_conn, "upload/archive")

# Rename / Move
sftp_rename(sftp_conn, "upload/file.txt", "upload/archive/file.backup")

Notes and Requirements

• This package relies on libcurl with SFTP support (libssh2).

Contributing

• Please open issues or pull requests. Follow the existing code stles and update/include tests for behavioural changes.