Custom directory listing format (CSV)

The following example uses WinSCP .NET assembly from a PowerShell script. If you have another preferred language, you can easily translate it.

param (
    $sessionUrl = "sftp://user:mypassword;fingerprint=ssh-rsa-xxxxxxxxxxx...@example.com/",
    $remotePath = "/path",
    $outFile = "listing.csv"
)
 
try
{
    # Load WinSCP .NET assembly
    Add-Type -Path "WinSCPnet.dll"
 
    # Setup session options
    $sessionOptions = New-Object WinSCP.SessionOptions
    $sessionOptions.ParseUrl($sessionUrl)
 
    try
    {
        # Connect
        Write-Host "Connecting..."
        $session = New-Object WinSCP.Session
        $session.Open($sessionOptions)
 
        # Retrieve listing
        Write-Host "Listing..."
        $directory = $session.ListDirectory($remotePath)
 
        # Remove output file if it exists
        if (Test-Path $outFile)
        {
            Remove-Item $outFile
        }
 
        # Generate a custom listing for each file in the output file
        # Using UTF-16 (Unicode) encoding that Microsoft Excel likes.
        foreach ($fileInfo in $directory.Files)
        {
            ("`"{0}`"`t{1}`t`"{2}`"" -f
                $fileInfo.Name, $fileInfo.Length, $fileInfo.LastWriteTime) |
                Out-File -Append $outFile -Encoding Unicode
        }
 
        Write-Host "Done"
    }
    finally
    {
        # Disconnect, clean up
        $session.Dispose()
    }
 
    exit 0
}
catch
{
    Write-Host "Error: $($_.Exception.Message)"
    exit 1
}

You may have WinSCP produce XML log with the listing and convert it to your custom format using XSLT:

Use the following Windows batch file (listing.bat):

@echo off
set XMLLOG=script.xml
winscp.com /log=script.log /xmllog=%XMLLOG% /command ^
    "open mysession" ^
    "ls /path" ^
    "exit"
if %ERRORLEVEL% == 0 msxsl.exe %XMLLOG% listing.xsl > listing.csv

Where the listing.xsl may look like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:winscp="http://winscp.net/schema/session/1.0">
    <!-- Using UTF-16 encoding that Microsoft Excel likes -->
    <xsl:output method="text" encoding="UTF-16"/>
    <xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>
    <xsl:template match='winscp:ls[winscp:result[@success="true"]]/winscp:files/winscp:file'>
         <xsl:text>&quot;</xsl:text>
         <xsl:value-of select="winscp:filename/@value"/>
         <xsl:text>&quot;&#9;</xsl:text>
         <xsl:value-of select="winscp:size/@value"/>
         <xsl:text>&#9;&quot;</xsl:text>
         <xsl:value-of select="winscp:modification/@value"/>
         <xsl:text>&quot;&#xa;</xsl:text>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

• Guide to scripting/automation;
• WinSCP .NET assembly;
• Using WinSCP .NET Assembly from PowerShell;
• XML logging.