M. Warner Losh scripsit:

> Since the interface to the kernel is time_t, there's really no chance
> for the kernel to do anything smarter with leapseconds.  gettimeofday,
> time and clock_gettime all return a time_t in different flavors.

It could be done in the C library, since the interface between the
kernel and libc is not defined, only the interface between libc and
userland programs proper.

> Kernels aren't written in these languages.

They don't have to be: the strong typing can be imposed by
convention.  ISO C got this right: a time_t can be any numeric
type, and difftime is used to find the seconds between two time_t's.
POSIX decided to stick with the old count-of-seconds rules for
arithmetic purposes, while making time_t no longer an actual count
of seconds, as V7 Unix defined it to be.

--
John Cowan    http://ccil.org/~cowan    [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mr. Henry James writes fiction as if it were a painful duty.  --Oscar Wilde

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