[tz] source code question regarding localtime.c PS

[Paul Goyette]

Since icycles and tcycles are of different types, there could 
be some conversion involved at line 1295, with possible data 
truncation.  Thus, the comparisons on line 1296 might not be 
always false.

(I think there were some recent comments about the possibility 
of time_t being a non-integral type...)



-----Original Message-----
From: tz-bounces at iana.org [mailto:tz-bounces at iana.org] On Behalf Of Alois Treindl
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2013 6:09 AM
To: tz at iana.org
Subject: [tz] source code question regarding localtime.c PS

In localtime.c, function localsub() are these three lines of code:

1295    icycles = tcycles;
1296    if (tcycles - icycles >= 1 || icycles - tcycles >=  1)
1297      return NULL;

I do not understand the reason why lines 1296 and 1297 exist.
icycles and tcycles are equal.
Their difference is always zero. Why test for it being not zero?


PS: the reason why I am asking:
I try to understand the source code of zdump.c
It calls localtime() frequently, and has some cryptic code which depends 
on whether localtime() returned NULL.

Therefore, I try to understand the conditions under which localtime() 
returns NULL. If that would be documented somewhee (I may have 
overlooked it), it would be great, as it is rather hard to understand it 
out of the terse code.