PowerShell

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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Add-Type -Path "C:\chilkat\ChilkatDotNet47-x64\ChilkatDotNet47.dll"

$success = $false

#  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-Object Chilkat.SFtp

#  Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
$port = 22
$success = $sftp.Connect("sftp.example.com",$port)
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($sftp.LastErrorText)
    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 -eq $false) {
    $($sftp.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$success = $sftp.InitializeSftp()
if ($success -eq $false) {
    $($sftp.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

#  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

$lastAccess = $sftp.GetFileLastAccessStr("subdir/report.pdf",$bFollowLinks,$bIsHandle)
if ($sftp.LastMethodSuccess -eq $false) {
    $($sftp.LastErrorText)
    exit
}

$("Last accessed: " + $lastAccess)

$sftp.Disconnect()