Re: date(1) doesn't handle leap-seconds?

[Jan Schaumann <jschauma%netmeister.org@localhost>]

Paul Goyette <paul%whooppee.com@localhost> wrote:

> Ah, OK.  So POSIX syystems are all currently off by 23 seconds, and soon to 
> be off by 24 seconds (there's another leapsecond coming up at the end of 
> 2008).  Bummer.

That is not quite my understanding.  ntpd can slew the system time to
ensure it's in sync without actually adding seconds, ie seconds can get
stretched.  This leaves the number of seconds since the epoch still at
monotonically increasing, they're just not all of the same length.

Also, some systems choose to interpret the epoch number by displaying
23:59:59 or 00:00:00 for two seceonds.

-Jan

Attachment: pgpebhs8SuigQ.pgp
Description: PGP signature