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Modifies the content of a test document file by writing new content to it, with a built-in delay to ensure the file's modification time changes.

Purpose

This utility function is designed for testing scenarios where file modification time (mtime) changes need to be detected. It writes new content to a file at the specified path after a 0.1 second delay to guarantee that the file system registers a different modification timestamp. This is particularly useful for testing file watchers, document indexers, or any system that relies on detecting file changes through mtime comparisons.

Source Code

def modify_test_document(path: Path, new_content: str):
    """Modify a test document"""
    # Wait a bit to ensure mtime changes
    time.sleep(0.1)
    path.write_text(new_content)

Parameters

Parameter Details

path: A Path object representing the file system path to the document that should be modified. Must be a valid pathlib.Path instance pointing to a writable location. The file will be created if it doesn't exist, or overwritten if it does.

new_content: A string containing the new content to write to the file. This completely replaces any existing content in the file. Can be any valid string including empty strings or multi-line text.

Return Value

This function does not return any value (implicitly returns None). The side effect is the modification of the file at the specified path with the new content.

Dependencies

• pathlib
• time

Required Imports

from pathlib import Path
import time

Usage Example

from pathlib import Path
import time

def modify_test_document(path: Path, new_content: str):
    """Modify a test document"""
    time.sleep(0.1)
    path.write_text(new_content)

# Example usage
test_file = Path('test_document.txt')
test_file.write_text('Original content')

# Modify the document
modify_test_document(test_file, 'Updated content for testing')

# Verify the change
print(test_file.read_text())  # Output: Updated content for testing

Best Practices

• This function is intended for testing purposes only, not for production file operations
• The 0.1 second delay may not be sufficient on all file systems; some systems have coarser mtime granularity (e.g., 1 second on some older systems)
• Ensure the path's parent directory exists before calling this function, or handle potential FileNotFoundError exceptions
• Be aware that this function overwrites the entire file content; it does not append or modify specific sections
• Consider using this in conjunction with temporary directories (tempfile module) to avoid polluting the file system during tests
• The function uses blocking sleep which will pause the entire thread; consider this in multi-threaded test scenarios

Tags

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