PHP ActiveX

Get a Remote File's Last-Access Time

Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.GetFileLastAccessStr method, which returns a remote file's last-access 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 access time is meant to update whenever a file is read, but in practice it is often unreliable: many systems mount filesystems with options like noatime to avoid a disk write on every read, so the value may not reflect recent reads. Treat it as a hint rather than an authoritative record of when a file was last opened.

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<?php

$success = 0;

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

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

print 'Last accessed: ' . $lastAccess . "\n";

$sftp->Disconnect();

?>