Get a Remote File's Creation Time

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Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.GetFileCreateTimeStr method, which returns a remote file's creation date and time. The arguments are the remote path (or handle), whether symbolic links are followed, and whether the first argument is a handle.

Background: Creation time is the least universally available of the three timestamps: many Unix filesystems historically tracked only modified and accessed times, so a server may return nothing or a placeholder. Where it is supported it is genuinely useful — it does not change when a file is edited, unlike the modified time — but code should tolerate its absence rather than depend on it.

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#include <C_CkSFtp.h>

void ChilkatSample(void)
    {
    BOOL success;
    HCkSFtp sftp;
    int port;
    const char *password;
    BOOL bFollowLinks;
    BOOL bIsHandle;
    const char *createTime;

    success = FALSE;

    //  Demonstrates the SFtp.GetFileCreateTimeStr method, which returns a remote file's creation date
    //  and time.  The 1st argument is the remote path (or handle), the 2nd selects whether symbolic
    //  links are followed, and the 3rd indicates whether the 1st argument is a handle.

    sftp = CkSFtp_Create();

    //  Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
    port = 22;
    success = CkSFtp_Connect(sftp,"sftp.example.com",port);
    if (success == FALSE) {
        printf("%s\n",CkSFtp_lastErrorText(sftp));
        CkSFtp_Dispose(sftp);
        return;
    }

    //  Normally you would not hard-code the password in source.  You should instead obtain it
    //  from an interactive prompt, environment variable, or a secrets vault.
    password = "mySshPassword";

    success = CkSFtp_AuthenticatePw(sftp,"mySshLogin",password);
    if (success == FALSE) {
        printf("%s\n",CkSFtp_lastErrorText(sftp));
        CkSFtp_Dispose(sftp);
        return;
    }

    success = CkSFtp_InitializeSftp(sftp);
    if (success == FALSE) {
        printf("%s\n",CkSFtp_lastErrorText(sftp));
        CkSFtp_Dispose(sftp);
        return;
    }

    //  The 2nd argument (bFollowLinks) selects whether a symbolic link is followed to its target.
    //  The 3rd argument (bIsHandle) is FALSE here because the 1st argument is a path, not an
    //  open handle.
    bFollowLinks = TRUE;
    bIsHandle = FALSE;

    createTime = CkSFtp_getFileCreateTimeStr(sftp,"subdir/report.pdf",bFollowLinks,bIsHandle);
    if (CkSFtp_getLastMethodSuccess(sftp) == FALSE) {
        printf("%s\n",CkSFtp_lastErrorText(sftp));
        CkSFtp_Dispose(sftp);
        return;
    }

    printf("Created: %s\n",createTime);

    //  Note: Not all servers and filesystems record a creation time.

    CkSFtp_Disconnect(sftp);


    CkSFtp_Dispose(sftp);

    }