new_contents: import datetime as dt
  
  def dateParser(timestring):
      """
          Parse a datetime string from ls -l and return a standard isotime
          
          ls -l returns dates in two different formats:
          
          May  2 09:06 (for dates within 6 months from now)
          May  2 2018  (for dates further away)
          
          Best would be to return ls -l --full-time,
          but unfortunately we have no control over the remote API
      """
      
      recent_time_format = "%b %d %H:%M"
      older_time_format = "%b %d %Y"
      try:
          date = dt.datetime.strptime(timestring, recent_time_format)
          now = dt.datetime.now()
          this_year = dt.datetime(year=now.year,
                             month=date.month, day=date.day,
                             hour=date.hour, minute=date.minute)
          last_year = dt.datetime(year=now.year-1,
                             month=date.month, day=date.day,
                             hour=date.hour, minute=date.minute)
          
          delta_this = abs((now-this_year).total_seconds())
          delta_last = abs((now-last_year).total_seconds())
          print(delta_this, delta_last)
          if (delta_this > delta_last):
              date = last_year
          else:
              date = this_year
          print(date.microsecond)
              
      except ValueError:
          try:
              date = dt.datetime.strptime(timestring, older_time_format)
          except ValueError:
              date = dt.datetime.now()
              date = dt.datetime(year=date.year,
                                     month=date.month, day=date.day,
                                     hour=date.hour, minute=date.minute,
                                     second=date.second, microsecond=0)
      return date.isoformat()
  
  
subject: Add function to convert a date from bash to iso format