F-ckin Leap Seconds, how do they work?

Tue Jul 3 19:33:42 UTC 2012

----- Original Message -----
> From: "valdis kletnieks" <valdis.kletnieks at vt.edu>

> When the published API has been "the system clock is in UTC" for some 3
> decades, I hardly think it's acceptable to call apps "buggy" for assuming that
> the system clock is in fact using UTC and breaking if you switch it to
> something that's not UTC. And the new time *has* to have different semantics
> than UTC, because if it doesn't then what's the point of changing it?

Correct.  It's very likely that there is *no* sufficiently compelling 
application requirement that justifies switching NTP from UTC to UT1/TAI.

So far as I can tell, the *only* requirement is "I need to be able to 
calculate unixtime<->ISO8601 reliably to the second for times further away 
than the next possible leapsecond"; I have not had pointed out to me yet an 
application which actually requires that; I'm 99 44/100% certain that there
isn't one with a sufficiently compelling story to break 3 decades of code.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra at baylink.com
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