Lua

Get a Remote FTP File's Creation Time by Name

Demonstrates the Chilkat Ftp2.GetCreateTimeByNameStr method, which returns the creation time of a named item in the current remote directory as an RFC 822 date-time string. The only argument is the filename.

Background: Creation time is the least commonly supported of the timestamps — many servers report only the modification time — so treat an empty or missing result as "not available" rather than an error. Where it is provided, it is useful precisely because it does not change when a file is edited.

Chilkat Lua Downloads

Download Chilkat for Lua

Lua

local chilkat = require("chilkat")

-- Demonstrates the Ftp2.GetCreateTimeByNameStr method, which returns the creation time of a named
-- item in the current remote directory as an RFC 822 date-time string.  The only argument is the
-- filename.

local ftp = chilkat.Ftp2.new()

ftp.hostname = "ftp.example.com"
ftp.username = "myFtpLogin"

-- 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.
ftp.password = "myPassword"

local success = ftp:connect()
if not success then
    print(ftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

success = ftp:change_remote_dir("public_html")
if not success then
    print(ftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

-- Not all servers report a creation time.
local createTime = ftp:get_create_time_by_name_str("report.pdf")
if not ftp.last_method_success then
    print(ftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

print("Created: " .. createTime)

success = ftp:disconnect()
if not success then
    print(ftp.last_error_text)
    return
end