Xbase++

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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LOCAL nSuccess
LOCAL oSftp
LOCAL nPort
LOCAL cPassword
LOCAL nBIsHandle
LOCAL cDateTimeStr

nSuccess := 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.

oSftp := CreateObject("Chilkat.SFtp")

//  Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
nPort := 22
nSuccess := oSftp:Connect("sftp.example.com", nPort)
IF (nSuccess == 0)
    ? oSftp:LastErrorText
    oSftp:destroy()
    RETURN
ENDIF

//  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.
cPassword := "mySshPassword"

nSuccess := oSftp:AuthenticatePw("mySshLogin", cPassword)
IF (nSuccess == 0)
    ? oSftp:LastErrorText
    oSftp:destroy()
    RETURN
ENDIF

nSuccess := oSftp:InitializeSftp()
IF (nSuccess == 0)
    ? oSftp:LastErrorText
    oSftp:destroy()
    RETURN
ENDIF

//  The 1st argument is a path, so bIsHandle is 0.
nBIsHandle := 0
cDateTimeStr := "Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:15:30 -0600"
nSuccess := oSftp:SetCreateTimeStr("subdir/report.pdf", nBIsHandle, cDateTimeStr)
IF (nSuccess == 0)
    ? oSftp:LastErrorText
    oSftp:destroy()
    RETURN
ENDIF

? "Creation time set."

oSftp:Disconnect()

oSftp:destroy()