Lua

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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Lua

local chilkat = require("chilkat")

-- 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.

local sftp = chilkat.SFtp.new()

-- Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
local port = 22
local success = sftp:connect("sftp.example.com", port)
if not success then
    print(sftp.last_error_text)
    return
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.
local password = "mySshPassword"

success = sftp:authenticate_pw("mySshLogin", password)
if not success then
    print(sftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

success = sftp:initialize_sftp()
if not success then
    print(sftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

-- The 1st argument is a path, so bIsHandle is false.
local bIsHandle = false
local dateTimeStr = "Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:15:30 -0600"
success = sftp:set_create_time_str("subdir/report.pdf", bIsHandle, dateTimeStr)
if not success then
    print(sftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

print("Creation time set.")

sftp:disconnect()