A function to see if a file has changed

file_change_check.py

import os

FILE = "test.txt"

def file_changed(file):
    """ Checks the windows file attributes to see if a file has been updated """
    new_change_time = None
    last_change_time = None
    while new_change_time == last_change_time:
        if last_change_time is None:
            last_change_time = os.stat(file).st_mtime  # time of previous content modification
        new_change_time = os.stat(file).st_mtime  # time of most recent content modification

    # when the while-loop becomes false - i.e. the file has changed
    return True

if file_changed(FILE):
    os.startfile(FILE)