Accessing the Windows File System from SQL Server

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Problem

Within my SQL Server T-SQL stored procedures and scripts I need to find out the files in a specific directory.  What are some approaches to do so?  I need some flexibility to capture the file names and general information for subsequent processing.  What are the native SQL Server options as well as the custom options that are available?

Solution

Depending on the exact needs dictates the command(s) that need to be issued from SQL Server 2000 or 2005.  Below outlines some options to access the Windows file system related information with both native and custom code.  In general the following commands exist:

Extended Stored Procedure - xp_cmdshell - Ability to execute any DOS command line code.
(Platform = SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005)

EXEC master.dbo.xp_cmdshell 'dir c:\'
GO 

Extended Stored Procedure - xp_fixeddrives - Ability to capture the free drive space in megabytes.
(Platform = SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005)

EXEC master.dbo.xp_fixeddrives
GO 

Extended Stored Procedure - xp_subdirs - Ability to capture the sub directories, but not files.
(Platform = SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005)

EXEC master.dbo.xp_subdirs 'c:\'
GO 

Custom Code - snippet - Ability to capture the file names in a temporary table with xp_cmdshell.
(Platform = SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005)

/*
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Object Name: Script
-- Project: Misc
-- Business Process: Supports SQL Server 2000 and 2005
-- Purpose: Capture the files in a specific directory with xp_cmdshell
-- Database: N\A
-- Dependent Objects: 
-- Called By: N\A
-- Upstream Systems: N\A
-- Downstream Systems: N\A
-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Rev | CMR | Date Modified | Developer | Change Summary
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
*/ SET NOCOUNT ON

-- 1 - Variable declarations
DECLARE @CMD1 varchar(5000) 
DECLARE @CMD2 varchar(5000)
DECLARE @FilePath varchar(200)

-- 2 - Create the #OriginalFileList temporary table to support the un-cleansed file list
CREATE TABLE #OriginalFileList (
Col1 varchar(1000) NULL
)

-- 3 - Create the #ParsedFileList temporary table to support the cleansed file list
CREATE TABLE #ParsedFileList (
PFLID INT PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY (1,1) NOT NULL,
DateTimeStamp datetime NOT NULL,
FileSize varchar(50) NOT NULL,
FileName1 varchar (255) NOT NULL
)

-- 4 - Initialize the variables
SELECT @CMD1 = ''
SELECT @CMD2 = '' 
SELECT @FilePath = 'C:\Progra~1\Micros~2\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Log\'

-- 5 - Build the string to capture the file names in the restore location
SELECT @CMD1 = 'master.dbo.xp_cmdshell ' + char(39) + 'dir ' + @FilePath + '\*.*' + char(39)

-- 6 - Build the string to populate the #OriginalFileList temporary table
SELECT @CMD2 = 'INSERT INTO #OriginalFileList(Col1)' + char(13) +
'EXEC ' + @CMD1

-- 7 - Execute the string to populate the #OriginalFileList table
EXEC (@CMD2)

-- 8 - Delete unneeded data from the #OriginalFileList
DELETE FROM #OriginalFileList
WHERE COL1 IS NULL
DELETE FROM #OriginalFileList
WHERE COL1 LIKE '%Volume%'
DELETE FROM #OriginalFileList
WHERE COL1 LIKE '%Directory%'
DELETE FROM #OriginalFileList
WHERE COL1 LIKE '%<DIR>%'
DELETE FROM #OriginalFileList
WHERE COL1 LIKE '%bytes%'

-- 9 - Populate the #ParsedFileList table with the final data
INSERT INTO #ParsedFileList (DateTimeStamp, FileSize, FileName1)
SELECT LTRIM(SUBSTRING (Col1, 1, 20)) AS 'DateTimeStamp',
LTRIM(SUBSTRING (Col1, 21, 18)) AS 'FileSize',
LTRIM(SUBSTRING (Col1, 40, 1000)) AS 'FileName1'
FROM #OriginalFileList
-- ********************************************************************************
-- INSERT code here to process the data from the #ParsedFileList table 
-- ********************************************************************************

-- 10 - Drop the temporary tables
DROP TABLE #OriginalFileList
DROP TABLE #ParsedFileList
SET NOCOUNT OFF
GO
Next Steps
  • Keep in mind that the master.dbo.xp_cmdshell extended stored procedure will permit you to execute any Windows command just as if you were in a DOS session.  So you need to review the capabilities of this extended stored procedure from a security perspective to determine the impacts in your environment.
  • The master.dbo.xp_cmdshell extended stored procedure is available in both SQL Server 2000 and 2005.  In SQL Server 2005 the master.dbo.xp_cmdshell extended stored procedure is off by default and needs to be enabled via the Surface Area Configuration Manager.
  • For more information about securing the master.dbo.xp_cmdshell extended stored procedure, check out - <-- Security Bulletin --> How do I secure an extended stored procedure?


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About the author
MSSQLTips author Jeremy Kadlec Jeremy Kadlec is a Co-Founder, Editor and Author at MSSQLTips.com with more than 300 contributions. He is also the CTO @ Edgewood Solutions and a six-time SQL Server MVP. Jeremy brings 20+ years of SQL Server DBA and Developer experience to the community after earning a bachelor's degree from SSU and master's from UMBC.

This author pledges the content of this article is based on professional experience and not AI generated.

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Comments For This Article




Friday, March 8, 2013 - 12:11:12 AM - Jeremy Kadlec Back To Top (22648)

Bob,

Thank you for the feedback and happy to help!

Thank you,
Jeremy Kadlec
Community Co-Leader


Wednesday, March 6, 2013 - 2:14:59 PM - Bob Harrsion Back To Top (22605)

Thanks for this post, it was a great help for a starting point. HOWEVER, it will skip any files that have the strings 'Directory', 'Volume', or 'bytes' in the filename. So when I use this, I will check for those strings in the location that would indicate it is not a record with a filename. Again thanks, this is a great help if you make the little twicks to it.

Bob


Monday, January 4, 2010 - 4:19:15 PM - admin Back To Top (4639)

PhilHege,

Thank you for alternative approach.

Thank you,
The MSSQLTips Team


Monday, January 4, 2010 - 3:17:54 PM - philhege Back To Top (4636)

In many environments, security concerns prevent the enabling of xp_cmdshell.  So how would one get the information without it?

If you can rely on a scheduled job, here's a solution:

Create a job with a job step that uses the Operating system (CMDEXEC) type.  Create a DOS command in this step that pipes the results of a DIR to a file:

DIR d:\MyDirectory >d:\MyOutputFolder\MyDirectoryList.txt

Next, create a job step that BULK INSERTs the contents of the file to a temporary table.  From this point, you can evaluate the contents of the directory.  In this example, I look for the existence of a certain file, and return an error code if it doesn't exist.  The job is set up to quit with success if this step fails (returning the error from RAISERROR), so it doesn't report a job failure. (In this case, I simply want to stop processing the job if the file's not there.)  

declare @sql varchar(256)

create table #filelist (fileinfo varchar(255))

set @sql = 'BULK INSERT #filelist

from ' + '''d:\MyOutputFolder\MyDirectoryList.txt''' + '

with (DataFileType = '+ '''char''' + ', FieldTerminator = ' + ''',''' + ',

FirstRow = 1)'

exec(@sql)

--Look for the file name in the temp table. Each record is an entry from the DIR command results.

if NOT EXISTS(select * from #filelist where charindex('MyFile.txt',fileinfo) > 0)

BEGIN

DROP TABLE #filelist

RAISERROR('MyFile.txt not found.',16,1)

END

ELSE

DROP TABLE #filelist

 

You can do whatever you want with the data once it's in the temporary table. Issue a DROP TABLE #filelist at the end of your code to clean up.

 

 

 

 















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