Tcl

Set a Remote File's Creation Time

Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.SetCreateTimeStr method, which sets a remote file's creation 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 such as Fri, 21 Nov 1997 09:55:06 -0600.

Background: Setting timestamps matters when preserving a file's original chronology — migrating an archive, restoring a backup, or mirroring a directory so the copies look identical to the source. Whether creation time can actually be set depends on the server and filesystem; many do not support a settable creation time even when they can set the modified and accessed times. The RFC 822 format includes a timezone offset, so the moment is unambiguous.

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Tcl


load ./chilkat.dll

set success 0

#  Demonstrates the SFtp.SetCreateTimeStr method, which sets a remote file's creation 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.

set sftp [new_CkSFtp]

#  Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
set port 22
set success [CkSFtp_Connect $sftp "sftp.example.com" $port]
if {$success == 0} then {
    puts [CkSFtp_lastErrorText $sftp]
    delete_CkSFtp $sftp
    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.
set password "mySshPassword"

set success [CkSFtp_AuthenticatePw $sftp "mySshLogin" $password]
if {$success == 0} then {
    puts [CkSFtp_lastErrorText $sftp]
    delete_CkSFtp $sftp
    exit
}

set success [CkSFtp_InitializeSftp $sftp]
if {$success == 0} then {
    puts [CkSFtp_lastErrorText $sftp]
    delete_CkSFtp $sftp
    exit
}

#  The 1st argument is a path, so bIsHandle is 0.
set bIsHandle 0
set dateTimeStr "Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:15:30 -0600"
set success [CkSFtp_SetCreateTimeStr $sftp "subdir/report.pdf" $bIsHandle $dateTimeStr]
if {$success == 0} then {
    puts [CkSFtp_lastErrorText $sftp]
    delete_CkSFtp $sftp
    exit
}

puts "Creation time set."

CkSFtp_Disconnect $sftp

delete_CkSFtp $sftp