The find (and thereby cataloging) machinery allows to specify restrictions by meta type for objects to be find. The used selection list is derived from "all_meta_types", the same list used to add new objects to folders. In fact it is the list of products (internal or external).
Because of this, "Local File System" can be specified in a find meta type restriction but not "Local Directory" or "Local File", which are not products and are not in "all_meta_types".
Thus, either "all meta types" must be selected or "Local Directory/File" can not be found/cataloged.
I see two possible solutions: 1. avoid new meta types for objects that can not be inserted into a folder. Let them instead use a similar existing meta type (e.g. "Folder" for "Local Directory"). 2. provide (in Zope) an additional meta type registration procedure that is used by the find machinery.
A Local Directory is not a Folder, so that isn't a valid solution. It should be possible to register Local Directory with all_meta_types in the product initialization but that might have undesirable implications. For one, I wouldn't want it to show up in the 'Add Objects' list. Option 2 might work. Let's see what the zope-dev list has to say about it.
With the most recent version of LocalFS, the bobobase_modification_time should be the same as the object's mtime in the file system. Please let me know the details if you're seeing anything different. Thank you! I think, I will check it on Friday.
Actually I just tested it myself and found it's not working as expected but haven't had time to figure out why. --jfarr