On Mon, Apr 30, 2001 at 10:51:15AM -0400, John Hawkinson wrote:
> > There is no MI way, but maybe it would be an idea to have a
> > sysctl.clockresolution that user programs could read to get the
> > gettimeofday() resolution.

Should sysconf(_SC_CLK_TCK) be used for this purpose?  It's what UNICOS
uses to answer a similar question, and the man page claims it's POSIX
compliant:

     The values for name specified by the POSIX P1003.1 standard are listed
     in the following with a brief description of the value each returns:

[snip]

     _SC_CLK_TCK                The number of clock ticks per second.

However, the UNICOS usage is not compatible with the usage being
considered here.  On UNICOS, sysconf(_SC_CLK_TCK) returns the resolution
of the hardware clock, which is available via the _rtc() intrinsic
function (the compiler generates the appropriate instructions to read
the hardware clock, something like RDTSC on i386).

> So perhaps a sysctl would be better. If only there were a more convenient
> portable interface...

Hmmm...

-andy