PHP ActiveX

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.

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<?php

$success = 0;

//  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 COM("Chilkat.SFtp");

//  Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
$port = 22;
$success = $sftp->Connect('sftp.example.com',$port);
if ($success == 0) {
    print $sftp->LastErrorText . "\n";
    exit;
}

//  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';

$success = $sftp->AuthenticatePw('mySshLogin',$password);
if ($success == 0) {
    print $sftp->LastErrorText . "\n";
    exit;
}

$success = $sftp->InitializeSftp();
if ($success == 0) {
    print $sftp->LastErrorText . "\n";
    exit;
}

//  The 2nd argument (bFollowLinks) selects whether a symbolic link is followed to its target.
//  The 3rd argument (bIsHandle) is 0 here because the 1st argument is a path, not an
//  open handle.
$bFollowLinks = 1;
$bIsHandle = 0;

$createTime = $sftp->getFileCreateTimeStr('subdir/report.pdf',$bFollowLinks,$bIsHandle);
if ($sftp->LastMethodSuccess == 0) {
    print $sftp->LastErrorText . "\n";
    exit;
}

print 'Created: ' . $createTime . "\n";

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

$sftp->Disconnect();

?>