CkPython

Set a Remote File's Last-Access Time

Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.SetLastAccessTimeStr method, which sets a remote file's last-access 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.

Background: Setting the access time explicitly is mainly for faithful restores and mirrors, where you want the copy's metadata to match the original exactly. Note that many servers update the access time on their own whenever a file is read (unless mounted noatime), so a value you set can be overwritten by ordinary access — making this the least durable of the timestamps to control.

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import sys
import chilkat

success = False

#  Demonstrates the SFtp.SetLastAccessTimeStr method, which sets a remote file's last-access 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 = chilkat.CkSFtp()

#  Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
port = 22
success = sftp.Connect("sftp.example.com",port)
if (success == False):
    print(sftp.lastErrorText())
    sys.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 == False):
    print(sftp.lastErrorText())
    sys.exit()

success = sftp.InitializeSftp()
if (success == False):
    print(sftp.lastErrorText())
    sys.exit()

#  The 1st argument is a path, so bIsHandle is False.
bIsHandle = False
dateTimeStr = "Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:15:30 -0600"
success = sftp.SetLastAccessTimeStr("subdir/report.pdf",bIsHandle,dateTimeStr)
if (success == False):
    print(sftp.lastErrorText())
    sys.exit()

print("Last-access time set.")

sftp.Disconnect()