if the file exists set target_time to the st_mtime which is a struct
        struct stat sb;
        struct stat sb_dep;
        struct timespec * target_time = NULL;
        struct timespec dependency_time;
        int status;

        if(access(target, F_OK) == 0){

                if (stat(target, &sb) == -1) {
                        perror("stat");
                        exit(1);
                }

                printf("line test\n");
                *(target_time) = sb.st_mtim;
        }