Check External Sentinel Staleness for targets

Check External Sentinel Staleness for targets

check_external_sentinel(
  sentinel_path,
  input_files,
  on_missing = c("stop", "warn"),
  on_stale = c("stop", "warn", "delete")
)

Arguments

sentinel_path

Path to sentinel file, either relative to project root or absolute

input_files

Character vector of input file paths, either relative to project root or absolute

on_missing

Action when sentinel missing: "stop" (default) or "warn"

on_stale

Action when sentinel stale: "stop" (default), "warn", or "delete"

Value

Relative path to sentinel (invisibly) if valid, otherwise stops with informative error

Details

All paths are resolved relative to the project root using `here::here()`. Absolute paths are automatically converted to relative paths for comparison with stored paths, ensuring consistency across platforms and working directories.

All timestamps are compared in UTC, ensuring correct staleness detection even when sentinels are shared across machines in different timezones.

Validates sentinel by checking: 1. Sentinel file exists 2. Input files haven't changed since external process ran (compared in UTC) 3. All expected input files are tracked in sentinel

If validation fails, provides clear error message and optionally deletes stale sentinel.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Using relative paths (recommended)
check_external_sentinel(
  sentinel_path = ".external/job_complete.json",
  input_files = c("data/raw.csv", "params.json")
)
} # }