VB.NET

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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Dim success As Boolean = False

'  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.

Dim sftp As New Chilkat.SFtp

'  Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
Dim port As Integer = 22
success = sftp.Connect("sftp.example.com",port)
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(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 = "mySshPassword"

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


success = sftp.InitializeSftp()
If (success = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(sftp.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If


'  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.
Dim bFollowLinks As Boolean = True
Dim bIsHandle As Boolean = False

Dim createTime As String = sftp.GetFileCreateTimeStr("subdir/report.pdf",bFollowLinks,bIsHandle)
If (sftp.LastMethodSuccess = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(sftp.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

Debug.WriteLine("Created: " & createTime)

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

sftp.Disconnect()