PHP

Get a Remote File's Last-Modified Time

Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.GetFileLastModifiedStr method, which returns a remote file's last-modified 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: The last-modified time is the workhorse timestamp — it updates whenever a file's contents change and is what incremental-sync logic compares to decide whether a file needs re-transferring. It is the most reliably supported of the three across servers and filesystems, which is why timestamp-based sync keys off it.

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<?php

use Chilkat2\SFtp;

// Demonstrates the SFtp.GetFileLastModifiedStr method, which returns a remote file's last-modified
// 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;

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

echo 'Last modified: ', $lastModified, "\n";

$sftp->Disconnect();