The PHP ftp_exec() function requests for execution of a command on the FTP server.

<?php
// connect and login to FTP server
$ftp_server = 'ftp.example.com';

$ftp_conn = ftp_connect($ftp_server) or die('Could not connect to ' . $ftp_server);
$login = ftp_login($ftp_conn, $ftp_username, $ftp_userpass);

$command = 'ls-al > my-file.txt';

// try to delete file
if (ftp_exec($ftp_conn,$command)) {
    echo 'Execution successful';
}
else {
    echo 'Execution failed';
}

// close connection
ftp_close($ftp_conn);
?>

// requests the execution of a command on the FTP server

ftp_exec(ftp_conn, command)