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Re: F-ckin Leap Seconds, how do they work?


From: Steve Allen <sla () ucolick org>
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2012 08:58:11 -0700

On 2012 Jul 4, at 08:50, Jimmy Hess wrote:
So accept the inaccuracy and correct the clock  in the normal way that
NTP corrects clocks that have drifted.

This is basically the "leap smear" that google instituted after
the issues in 2005.  It works nicely in cloud applications where
real-time is not an issue.  It does not work so well when precision
calculations of real-time physics are important, nor in heterogeneous
environments where not all devices pay attention to NTP or some
handle the leap differently than others.  Those are places
where a kernel should never be asked to do what the combination
of POSIX and leap seconds demand.
                                                                                
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