PHP

Get a Remote File's Creation Time

Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.GetFileCreateTimeStr method, which returns a remote file's creation date and time. The arguments are the remote path (or handle), whether symbolic links are followed, and whether the first argument is a handle.

Background: Creation time is the least universally available of the three timestamps: many Unix filesystems historically tracked only modified and accessed times, so a server may return nothing or a placeholder. Where it is supported it is genuinely useful — it does not change when a file is edited, unlike the modified time — but code should tolerate its absence rather than depend on it.

Chilkat PHP Downloads

Download Chilkat for PHP

Chilkat2 PHP

<?php

use Chilkat2\SFtp;

// Demonstrates the SFtp.GetFileCreateTimeStr method, which returns a remote file's creation date
// and time.  The 1st argument is the remote path (or handle), the 2nd selects whether symbolic
// links are followed, and the 3rd indicates whether the 1st argument is a handle.

$sftp = new SFtp();

// Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
$port = 22;
try {
    $sftp->Connect('sftp.example.com', $port);

    // 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';

    $sftp->AuthenticatePw('mySshLogin', $password);

    $sftp->InitializeSftp();

    // The 2nd argument (bFollowLinks) selects whether a symbolic link is followed to its target.
    // The 3rd argument (bIsHandle) is false here because the 1st argument is a path, not an
    // open handle.
    $bFollowLinks = true;
    $bIsHandle = false;

    $createTime = $sftp->GetFileCreateTimeStr('subdir/report.pdf', $bFollowLinks, $bIsHandle);
} catch (\Chilkat2\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage(), "\n";
    exit;
}

echo 'Created: ', $createTime, "\n";

// Note: Not all servers and filesystems record a creation time.

$sftp->Disconnect();