Re:Hate leap seconds? Imagine a negative one
by throw0101a on Thursday January 13, 2022 @06:02PM
(#29928256)
> Another way is to smear and hope that most programs won't be negatively affected by reported seconds being 0.00001s off.
> There are other options, but I don't think there's an "obviously correct way".
Well, there are ways that following reality more and less. There are also ways that have legal traceability to time sources in some regulated industries.
The problem isn't one where you hold your breath and squeeze your eyes shut for a second while the unpleasantness passes. The problem is when you have tons of code running and you don't know exactly how it'll deal with this very rare event.
If you're faced with an upcoming leap second there are various ways of dealing with it. One way is to do an audit of the code and hope that you can verify the most important parts. Another way is to smear and hope that most programs won't be negatively affected by reported seconds being 0.00001s off.
There are other options, but I don't think there's an "obviously correct way".