Merge pull request #1415 from pjkaufman/master

Fix Escaped Characters in Timestamp Format Resulting in Forced Update Even when It Should Not

Author: pjkaufman

__tests__/yaml-timestamp.test.ts

@@ -551,5 +551,28 @@ ruleTest({
         dateModifiedSourceOfTruth: 'user or Linter edits',
       },
     },
+    { // accounts for https://github.com/platers/obsidian-linter/issues/1411
+      testName: 'When the format for the file has escaped characters, if it matches the original format and the source of truth is not filesystem, then it should not update the date modified',
+      before: dedent`
+        ---
+        modified_on: "[[2025-10-11]]"
+        ---
+      `,
+      after: dedent`
+        ---
+        modified_on: "[[2025-10-11]]"
+        ---
+      `,
+      options: {
+        dateCreated: false,
+        format: '"[[[]YYYY-MM-DD[]]]"',
+        dateModifiedKey: 'modified_on',
+        fileCreatedTime: '2020-01-01T00:00:00-00:00',
+        fileModifiedTime: '2020-02-05T18:00:00-00:00',
+        currentTime: moment('Tuesday, February 5th 2026, 6:00:07 pm', 'dddd, MMMM Do YYYY, h:mm:ss a'),
+        alreadyModified: false,
+        dateModifiedSourceOfTruth: 'user or Linter edits',
+      },
+    },
   ],
 });

src/rules/yaml-timestamp.ts

@@ -132,8 +132,12 @@ export default class YamlTimestamp extends RuleBuilder<YamlTimestampOptions> {
           textModified = true;
         }
       } else if (options.dateCreatedSourceOfTruth != 'frontmatter') {
-        const createdDateTime = moment(createdDateString, options.format, options.locale, true);
-        if (createdDateTime == undefined || !createdDateTime.isValid()) {
+        // due to how moment validation works for formats, we must check if the output string is the same for the provided value since
+        // parsing when it has escaped characters in it does not result in a valid value
+        // see https://github.com/platers/obsidian-linter/issues/1411
+        const createdDateTime = moment(createdDateString, options.format, options.locale);
+        // to keep backwards compatibility, we will just go ahead and say that the format output must be equal if the format is not blank
+        if (createdDateTime == undefined || !createdDateTime.isValid() || (options.format !== '' && createdDateTime.format(options.format) != createdDateString)) {
           text = text.replace(
               created_match,
               escapeDollarSigns(created_date_line) + '\n',
@@ -161,14 +165,18 @@ export default class YamlTimestamp extends RuleBuilder<YamlTimestampOptions> {
 
     const keyWithValueFound = modified_match.test(text);
     if (keyWithValueFound) {
-      const modifiedDateTime = moment(this.getYAMLTimestampString(text, modified_match, options.dateModifiedKey), options.format, options.locale, true);
+      // due to how moment validation works for formats, we must check if the output string is the same for the provided value since
+      // parsing when it has escaped characters in it does not result in a valid value
+      // see https://github.com/platers/obsidian-linter/issues/1411
+      const originalString = this.getYAMLTimestampString(text, modified_match, options.dateModifiedKey);
+      const modifiedDateTime = moment(originalString, options.format, options.locale);
       // conditions when update happens for date modified if the key already exists:
       // 1. the text has been modified
       // 2. the modified date in the frontmatter is not the same locale or format as the settings
       // 3. the source of truth is not when a user or the Linter makes a change to the file and
       // there is a more than 5 second difference between the date modified in the frontmatter and
       // the filesystem
-      if (textModified || modifiedDateTime == undefined || !modifiedDateTime.isValid() ||
+      if (textModified || modifiedDateTime == undefined || !modifiedDateTime.isValid() || modifiedDateTime.format(options.format) != originalString ||
             (options.dateModifiedSourceOfTruth != 'user or Linter edits' && this.getTimeDifferenceInSeconds(modifiedDateTime, modified_date, options) > 5)
       ) {
         text = text.replace(