Delphi ActiveX

Set a Remote File's Creation Time

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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var
success: Integer;
sftp: TChilkatSFtp;
port: Integer;
password: WideString;
bIsHandle: Integer;
dateTimeStr: WideString;

begin
success := 0;

//  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.

sftp := TChilkatSFtp.Create(Self);

//  Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
port := 22;
success := sftp.Connect('sftp.example.com',port);
if (success = 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(sftp.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;

//  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 := sftp.AuthenticatePw('mySshLogin',password);
if (success = 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(sftp.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;

success := sftp.InitializeSftp();
if (success = 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(sftp.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;

//  The 1st argument is a path, so bIsHandle is 0.
bIsHandle := 0;
dateTimeStr := 'Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:15:30 -0600';
success := sftp.SetCreateTimeStr('subdir/report.pdf',bIsHandle,dateTimeStr);
if (success = 0) then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add(sftp.LastErrorText);
    Exit;
  end;
Memo1.Lines.Add('Creation time set.');

sftp.Disconnect();