Lua

Get an FTP Listing Entry's Creation Time

Demonstrates the Chilkat Ftp2.GetCreateTimeStr method, which returns the creation time of a cached directory-listing entry as an RFC 822 date-time string. The only argument is a zero-based index.

Background: Creation time is the least commonly reported of the timestamps — many servers and filesystems track only modification and access times — so expect it to be absent on some servers. When present it is genuinely useful because, unlike the modified time, it does not change when a file is edited. The RFC 822 format includes a timezone offset, making the moment unambiguous.

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Lua

local chilkat = require("chilkat")

-- Demonstrates the Ftp2.GetCreateTimeStr method, which returns the creation time of a cached
-- directory-listing entry as an RFC 822 date-time string.  The only argument is a zero-based
-- index.

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

-- GetDirCount retrieves the directory listing on the first call and returns the number of
-- entries.  A negative return indicates failure.
local n = ftp:get_dir_count()
if n < 0 then
    print(ftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

for i = 0, n - 1 do
    local name = ftp:get_filename(i)

    -- The value is an RFC 822 string such as "Fri, 21 Nov 1997 09:55:06 -0600".  Not all servers
    -- report a creation time.
    local createTime = ftp:get_create_time_str(i)
    print(name .. "  created " .. createTime)
end

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