Rust

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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Rust


// 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.

let sftp = chilkat::SFtp::new();

// Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
let port = 22;
if sftp.connect("sftp.example.com", port).is_err() {
    println!("{}", sftp.last_error_text());
    return;
}

// 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.
let password = "mySshPassword".to_string();

if sftp.authenticate_pw("mySshLogin", &password).is_err() {
    println!("{}", sftp.last_error_text());
    return;
}

if sftp.initialize_sftp().is_err() {
    println!("{}", sftp.last_error_text());
    return;
}

// 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.
let b_follow_links = true;
let b_is_handle = false;

let Ok(create_time) = sftp.get_file_create_time_str("subdir/report.pdf", b_follow_links, b_is_handle) else {
    println!("{}", sftp.last_error_text());
    return;
};

println!("Created: {}", create_time);

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

sftp.disconnect();