UTC questionnaire

D. J. Bernstein djb at cr.yp.to
Sun Dec 5 01:22:15 UTC 1999


Paul Eggert writes:
> But POSIX specifies UTC,

No. UTC includes leap seconds; the POSIX scale does not. The POSIX scale
includes a leap day in the year 2100; UTC does not. UTC is a safe format
for timestamps, even in the most demanding scientific applications; the
POSIX scale cannot be used for accurate timestamps during a leap second.

---Dan



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