PHP

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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Chilkat2 PHP

<?php

use Chilkat2\SFtp;

// 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.

$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 1st argument is a path, so bIsHandle is false.
    $bIsHandle = false;
    $dateTimeStr = 'Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:15:30 -0600';
    $sftp->SetCreateTimeStr('subdir/report.pdf', $bIsHandle, $dateTimeStr);
} catch (\Chilkat2\Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage(), "\n";
    exit;
}

echo "Creation time set.\n";

$sftp->Disconnect();