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Get a Remote File's Creation Time

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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Local $bSuccess = 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.

$oSftp = ObjCreate("Chilkat.SFtp")

;  Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
Local $iPort = 22
$bSuccess = $oSftp.Connect("sftp.example.com",$iPort)
If ($bSuccess = False) Then
    ConsoleWrite($oSftp.LastErrorText & @CRLF)
    Exit
EndIf

;  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.
Local $sPassword = "mySshPassword"

$bSuccess = $oSftp.AuthenticatePw("mySshLogin",$sPassword)
If ($bSuccess = False) Then
    ConsoleWrite($oSftp.LastErrorText & @CRLF)
    Exit
EndIf

$bSuccess = $oSftp.InitializeSftp()
If ($bSuccess = False) Then
    ConsoleWrite($oSftp.LastErrorText & @CRLF)
    Exit
EndIf

;  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.
Local $bFollowLinks = True
Local $bIsHandle = False

Local $sCreateTime = $oSftp.GetFileCreateTimeStr("subdir/report.pdf",$bFollowLinks,$bIsHandle)
If ($oSftp.LastMethodSuccess = False) Then
    ConsoleWrite($oSftp.LastErrorText & @CRLF)
    Exit
EndIf

ConsoleWrite("Created: " & $sCreateTime & @CRLF)

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

$oSftp.Disconnect