Lua

Create a Symbolic Link on an SFTP Server

Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.SymLink method, which creates a symbolic link on the server. The first argument is the link target and the second is the new symbolic-link path.

Background: A symbolic link stores a path that points at another location, so it can span directories or filesystems and can even point at something that does not exist. A common use is a stable name like latest.log that is repointed at each day's file. Argument order is a frequent source of confusion — the target comes first, the new link path second — and note that how the target string is interpreted (relative to what) is up to the server's implementation.

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Lua

local chilkat = require("chilkat")

-- Demonstrates the SFtp.SymLink method, which creates a symbolic link on the server.  The 1st
-- argument is the link target and the 2nd is the new symbolic-link path.

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

-- Create a symbolic link "subdir/latest.log" that points at "subdir/2026-07-23.log".  The
-- server's SFTP implementation determines how the target path is interpreted.
success = sftp:sym_link("subdir/2026-07-23.log", "subdir/latest.log")
if not success then
    print(sftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

print("Symbolic link created.")

sftp:disconnect()