Re: [coreutils] Re: [PATCH 2/2] stat: print timestamps to full resolution

[Eric Blake]

On 10/21/2010 10:32 AM, Jim Meyering wrote:
> A possible disadvantage of using this approach is that the naive
> implementation would perform truncation.  I.e., using a format of
> "%X.%3.3:X", a time of N.100999999 would be truncated to N.100

I would argue that you WANT truncation by default.  POSIX is explicit 
that if a file system cannot represent the full precision of utimensat, 
that it truncate rather than round.  The same should apply in any other 
context - rounding time into the future is always a potential for 
confusing bugs, and truncation is the best course of action when 
reducing precision.

> I'm inclined to say:
> If you care, don't truncate in the first place, or use
> another tool, e.g., printf, to format the floating point number.

Agreed.

--
Eric Blake   address@hidden    +1-801-349-2682
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