FTP 101 – Part 9: Rename and Remove – Using using FTP cmd

Published {$created} by Carsten Blum

Once your files and folders are on the server, you'll likely want to rename or remove things occasionally.That's where rename and rmdir come in.

To get started, create an FTP account, you can follow the tutorial here create an account with ftpGrid.

rename – Rename files or folders

The rename command lets you change the name of a file or directory on the remote server.

Example:

rename oldfile.txt newfile.txt

This renames oldfile.txt to newfile.txt in the current remote directory.

You can also rename folders:

rename oldfolder archive-2025

Keep in mind:

• You can't use rename to move files across folders.

• Not all servers allow renaming open/locked files.

rmdir – Remove a remote directory

Use rmdir to delete a directory on the server.

Example:

rmdir tempfolder

This removes the folder tempfolder – but only if it's empty.

If the folder contains files or subfolders, you'll see an error like:

550 Directory not empty.

You'll need to delete the contents manually first using delete and rmdir step by step.

Related: Deleting files

To delete a file:

delete unwanted.txt

Want to delete many files? Use mdelete:

prompt  
mdelete *.bak

Summary

ftpGrid supports these operations across FTP, FTPS and SFTP – but for safety, we recommend SFTP, especially when working with automation scripts.