Set a Remote File's Creation Time

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Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.SetCreateTimeStr method, which sets a remote file's creation date and time. The arguments are the remote path (or handle), whether the first argument is a handle, and an RFC 822 formatted date/time string such as Fri, 21 Nov 1997 09:55:06 -0600.

Background: Setting timestamps matters when preserving a file's original chronology — migrating an archive, restoring a backup, or mirroring a directory so the copies look identical to the source. Whether creation time can actually be set depends on the server and filesystem; many do not support a settable creation time even when they can set the modified and accessed times. The RFC 822 format includes a timezone offset, so the moment is unambiguous.

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bool success = false;

//  Demonstrates the SFtp.SetCreateTimeStr method, which sets a remote file's creation date and
//  time.  The 1st argument is the remote path (or handle), the 2nd (bIsHandle) indicates which,
//  and the 3rd is an RFC 822 formatted date/time string.

Chilkat.SFtp sftp = new Chilkat.SFtp();

//  Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
int port = 22;
success = sftp.Connect("sftp.example.com",port);
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(sftp.LastErrorText);
    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.
string password = "mySshPassword";

success = sftp.AuthenticatePw("mySshLogin",password);
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(sftp.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

success = sftp.InitializeSftp();
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(sftp.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

//  The 1st argument is a path, so bIsHandle is false.
bool bIsHandle = false;
string dateTimeStr = "Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:15:30 -0600";
success = sftp.SetCreateTimeStr("subdir/report.pdf",bIsHandle,dateTimeStr);
if (success == false) {
    Debug.WriteLine(sftp.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

Debug.WriteLine("Creation time set.");

sftp.Disconnect();