Visual Basic 6.0

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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Visual Basic 6.0

Dim success As Long
success = 0

'  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.

Dim sftp As New ChilkatSFtp

'  Step 1: Connect the SSH transport.  Port 22 is the usual port.
Dim port As Long
port = 22
success = sftp.Connect("sftp.example.com",port)
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print sftp.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

'  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.
Dim password As String
password = "mySshPassword"

success = sftp.AuthenticatePw("mySshLogin",password)
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print sftp.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

'  Step 3: Open the SFTP subsystem.  This must be done after authentication and before any
'  file or directory operations.
success = sftp.InitializeSftp()
If (success = 0) Then
    Debug.Print sftp.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

'  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.
Dim homeDir As String
homeDir = sftp.RealPath(".","")
If (sftp.LastMethodSuccess = 0) Then
    Debug.Print sftp.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

Debug.Print "Home directory: " & homeDir

'  Canonicalize a relative path with "..", resolving it to an absolute path.
Dim resolved As String
resolved = sftp.RealPath("subdir/../otherdir","")
If (sftp.LastMethodSuccess = 0) Then
    Debug.Print sftp.LastErrorText
    Exit Sub
End If

Debug.Print "Resolved path: " & resolved

sftp.Disconnect