Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2005 11:48:36 +0200 From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" <phk@phk.freebsd.dk> To: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au> Cc: cvs-src@freebsd.org, src-committers@freebsd.org, Andre Oppermann <andre@freebsd.org>, cvs-all@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Timekeeping [Was: Re: cvs commit: src/usr.bin/vmstat vmstat.c src/usr.bin/w w.c] Message-ID: <34506.1129974516@critter.freebsd.dk> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 22 Oct 2005 19:27:57 %2B1000." <20051022185422.Q8268@delplex.bde.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
In message <20051022185422.Q8268@delplex.bde.org>, Bruce Evans writes: >What's a UTC delta? Deltas don't (shouldn't) depend on the calendar. As easy as it would be to stick our head in the sand, ignore international treaties,geophysics and astronomy, point to POSIX and ignore leapseconds, it is not an feasible way out for us as an operating system project. UTC deltas does depend on the calendar for now. There is proposal from USA to make them DTRT pending in ITU-R Working Party 7A, but it is meeting fierce opposition from astronomers and geophysicists who hold the position that we can just ignore computers Until the future of leapseconds are resolved, something that could easily take 25 years, we have to deal with them. So an UTC offect contains any leap seconds we are aware off, and consequently, it depends on the calendar. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 phk@FreeBSD.ORG | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?34506.1129974516>