[tz] source code question regarding localtime.c PS

[Alan Barrett]

On Wed, 07 Aug 2013, Clive D.W. Feather wrote:
>Alois Treindl said:
>> 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.

   [tcycles has type time_t, which might not be an integer type]
   [icycles has type int_fast64_t]

>That code checks whether the value in tcycles is within the range of
>int_fast64_t. If it is, the conversion on line 1295 will either produce the
>same number or (if time_t is floating point) will round it off to the
>nearest integer. In that case, both halves of the test will be false.
>
>But if the value in tcycles is out of range, the conversion will generate a
>completely different number, and so one of those tests will be true.

If the value is out of range, then the assignment (icycles = 
tcycles) invokes undefined behaviour, so the test in the if 
statement might not do what one would expect.

If the tz code wants to check that a variable is in range, I think 
it should do without performing a possibly-undefined operation.

--apb (Alan Barrett)