protected function getLastFileTouch($file)
    {
        // initialize the file's mtime to 0
        $mtime = 0;

        // clear the stat cache to get real mtime if changed
        clearstatcache();

        // return the change date (last successful deployment date)
        if (is_file($file)) {
            $mtime = filemtime($file);
        }

        // return the file's mtime
        return $mtime;
    }