Rust

Resolve an Absolute Remote Path with SFTP RealPath

Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.RealPath method, which asks the server to canonicalize a path and returns the resulting absolute remote path. The first argument is the original path and the second is an optional compose path (SFTP v5 or later); pass an empty string when no composition is needed.

Background: The server — not the client — owns the remote filesystem's layout, so path canonicalization must happen on the server. RealPath resolves ., .., and symbolic links into a single absolute path, which is the reliable way to learn the session's home directory (canonicalize .) or to turn a relative path into an absolute one before storing or displaying it. On SFTP v5 and later, the compose path can additionally join or override the original.

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// Demonstrates the SFtp.RealPath method, which asks the server to canonicalize a path and
// returns the resulting absolute remote path.  The 1st argument is the original path and the
// 2nd is an optional compose path (SFTP v5+), which may be an empty string.

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

// Step 1: Connect the SSH transport.  Port 22 is the usual port.
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;
}

// Step 3: Open the SFTP subsystem.  This must be done after authentication and before any
// file or directory operations.
if sftp.initialize_sftp().is_err() {
    println!("{}", sftp.last_error_text());
    return;
}

// Resolve "." to the absolute path of the session's default (home) directory.  No compose path
// is needed, so the 2nd argument is an empty string.
let Ok(home_dir) = sftp.real_path(".", "") else {
    println!("{}", sftp.last_error_text());
    return;
};

println!("Home directory: {}", home_dir);

// Canonicalize a relative path with "..", resolving it to an absolute path.
let Ok(resolved) = sftp.real_path("subdir/../otherdir", "") else {
    println!("{}", sftp.last_error_text());
    return;
};

println!("Resolved path: {}", resolved);

sftp.disconnect();