[R] Output from file.info()$mtime

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On 07/08/2014 23:37, Fisher Dennis wrote:
> R 3.1.1
> OS X (and Windows)
>
> Colleagues
>
> I have some code that manages files.  Previously (as late as 3.1.0), the command:
> 	file.info(FILENAME)$mtime == “”
> yielded T/F
>
> Now, it triggers an error:
> 	Error in as.POSIXlt.character(x, tz, ...) :
> 	  character string is not in a standard unambiguous format
>
> I looked through Peter Dalgaard’s list of changes in 3.1.1 and I cannot find anything that would explain the change between versions.  I have fixed the problem.  However, I am concerned that other problems may be lurking (i.e., the changes might affect other commands).
>
> Of note, I ran:
> 	str(file.info(FILENAME)$mtime)
> in both versions of R and the results did not differ
>
> Can anyone explain what changed so that I can search my code efficiently?

Can you explain how that managed to give TRUE (sic)?  It was always a 
POSIXct timestamp, and as such is never equal "" (assuming that your 
mail client mangled ASCII double quotes).

I believe the relevant report is 
https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=15829



>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Dennis
>
>
> Dennis Fisher MD
> P < (The "P Less Than" Company)
> Phone: 1-866-PLessThan (1-866-753-7784)
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