You could use stat(): 

if ( (time - (stat FILE)[10]) / (60*60*24) > 5 ) { ... }

[download]

Actually, as -M is "Script start time minus file modification time, in days", you'd have to store the return value of time() right at the beginning of the script, to get the exact equivalent for ctime... though I suppose the difference would be negligible.   (Update: actually (RTFM :) — use "perldoc -f -X" to get the docs for the filetests...) there even seems to be an option -C which does just that...)

Alternatively (Update2: and preferably — see kenneth/MidLifeXis's comments below), reset the modification time to what it was before, every time you make a modification...

In reply to Re: File test to see creation time rather than last modified time by almut
in thread File test to see creation time rather than last modified time by walkingthecow

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.