I don't know how to use AssetDatabase.GetTextMetaDataPathFromAssetPath()

Unity Pro 4.2: I would really like to get the physical paths of meta-data files associated with an asset, just to check when they were last changed and accommodate that info in some automated AssetBundle building processes of mine.

Now AssetDatabase.GetTextMetaDataPathFromAssetPath() always seems to return dumbly whatever path I throw at it with ".meta" appended. Contrary to the docs page regarding that method, those files never exist physically (I have show system & hidden files etc. enabled in Windows Explorer).

And the actual metadata file-paths buried somewhere deep inside (project)/Library/metadata/(random-number-folders) are not provided anywhere from AssetDatabase class from what I can tell.

Or are they?