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Create a Symbolic Link on an SFTP Server

Demonstrates the Chilkat SFtp.SymLink method, which creates a symbolic link on the server. The first argument is the link target and the second is the new symbolic-link path.

Background: A symbolic link stores a path that points at another location, so it can span directories or filesystems and can even point at something that does not exist. A common use is a stable name like latest.log that is repointed at each day's file. Argument order is a frequent source of confusion — the target comes first, the new link path second — and note that how the target string is interpreted (relative to what) is up to the server's implementation.

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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.SymLink method, which creates a symbolic link on the server.  The 1st
    // argument is the link target and the 2nd is the new symbolic-link path.

    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;
    };

    // Create a symbolic link "subdir/latest.log" that points at "subdir/2026-07-23.log".  The
    // server's SFTP implementation determines how the target path is interpreted.
    sftp.symLink("subdir/2026-07-23.log", "subdir/latest.log") catch {
        std.debug.print("{s}\n", .{try sftp.getLastErrorText(alloc)});
        return;
    };

    std.debug.print("Symbolic link created.\n", .{});

    sftp.disconnect();
}