2 ms·
> You'll encounter the same problem if 23:59:58 is followed by 00:00:00 On the contrary, I would expect skipping a second to happen all the time from the persp
by Thiez 6y ago
> You'll encounter the same problem if 23:59:58 is followed by 00:00:00
On the contrary, I would expect skipping a second to happen all the time from the perspective of userland programs, due to common things such as blocking system calls and program scheduling under load. Also features such as sleep and hibernate can easily skip entire days.
- zizee 6y agoThat's not really the type of "skipping" that is the issue. Software tends to ask the system the current time (via a library), and the system responds with a "here is a number, it is the number of [units] since [epoch]". The library then converts that number using a formula to work out a date/time. If it is decided a leap second is added or subtracted, and the library's formula doesn't account for it, then the time will be calculated incorrectly. For most software it is unlikely to matter too much, but this sort of thing can lead to unpredictable emergent behavior in complex networked systems.