Python Paramiko SFTP get file along with file timestamp/stat

Question

# create SSHClient instance
ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()

list = []

# AutoAddPolicy automatically adding the hostname and new host key
ssh.set_missing_host_key_policy(paramiko.AutoAddPolicy())
ssh.load_system_host_keys()
ssh.connect(hostname, port, username, password)
stdin, stdout, stderr = ssh.exec_command("cd *path*; ls")

for i in stdout:
    list.append(i)

sftp = ssh.open_sftp()

for i in list:
    tempremote = ("*path*" + i).replace('\n', '')
    templocal = ("*path*" + i).replace('\n', '')

    try:
        #Get the file from the remote server to local directory
        sftp.get(tempremote, templocal)
    except Exception as e:
        print(e)

Remote Server File Date Modified Stat : 6/10/2018 10:00:17

Local File Date Modified Stat : Current datetime

But I found that the date modified changed after done copy the file.

Is there anyway to copy remote file along with the file stat to the local file too ?

Disastrous

Why are you using shell ls command to retrieve file a list? Use SFTP: SFTPClient.listdir. – Chas

Answer 1

Paramiko indeed won't preserve timestamp when transferring files.

You have to explicitly call the os.utime after the download.

---

Note that pysftp (that internally uses Paramiko) supports preserving the timestamp with its pysftp.Connection.get() method.

You can reuse their implementation (code simplified by me):

sftpattrs = sftp.stat(tempremote)
os.utime(templocal, (sftpattrs.st_atime, sftpattrs.st_mtime))

---

Similarly for uploads.

Chas

Thanks this is what I need in my function. Because I need the date modified to process my files. – Disastrous

Answer 2

There doesn't seem to be a way to copy with the stats documented in the paramiko SFTP module. It makes sense why though, because copying the stats besides times for a remote file wouldn't necessarily make sense (i.e. the user/group ids would not make sense on your local machine).

You can just copy the file, then get the atime/mtime/ctime using the SFTP client's stat or lstat methods and set those on the local file using os.utime.

Engulf