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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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const std = @import("std");
const chilkat = @import("chilkat");

pub fn main(init: std.process.Init) !void {
    const alloc = init.arena.allocator();

    // 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.

    const sftp = try chilkat.SFtp.init();
    defer sftp.deinit();

    // Connect, authenticate, and initialize the SFTP subsystem.
    const port = 22;
    sftp.connect("sftp.example.com", port) catch {
        std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{try sftp.getLastErrorText(alloc)});
        return;
    };

    // 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.
    const password = "mySshPassword";

    sftp.authenticatePw("mySshLogin", password) catch {
        std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{try sftp.getLastErrorText(alloc)});
        return;
    };

    sftp.initializeSftp() catch {
        std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{try sftp.getLastErrorText(alloc)});
        return;
    };

    // The 1st argument is a path, so bIsHandle is false.
    const b_is_handle = false;
    const date_time_str = "Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:15:30 -0600";
    sftp.setCreateTimeStr("subdir/report.pdf", b_is_handle, date_time_str) catch {
        std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{try sftp.getLastErrorText(alloc)});
        return;
    };

    std.debug.print("Creation time set.\n", .{});

    sftp.disconnect();
}