sourceModified = source.getModifiedTime( confCopy );
// source modified returns zero if does not exist
// this should minimize number of times we touch any file meta-data server
if( sourceModified == 0 && !source.resourceExists( confCopy ) )
throw new FlowException( "source does not exist: " + source );
if( sinkModified < sourceModified )
return sourceModified;
}