VB.NET

Get a Remote File's Last-Access Time

Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.GetFileLastAccessStr method, which returns a remote file's last-access 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: The access time is meant to update whenever a file is read, but in practice it is often unreliable: many systems mount filesystems with options like noatime to avoid a disk write on every read, so the value may not reflect recent reads. Treat it as a hint rather than an authoritative record of when a file was last opened.

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Dim success As Boolean = False

'  Demonstrates the SFtp.GetFileLastAccessStr method, which returns a remote file's last-access
'  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 lastAccess As String = sftp.GetFileLastAccessStr("subdir/report.pdf",bFollowLinks,bIsHandle)
If (sftp.LastMethodSuccess = False) Then
    Debug.WriteLine(sftp.LastErrorText)
    Exit Sub
End If

Debug.WriteLine("Last accessed: " & lastAccess)

sftp.Disconnect()