Re: Bug: Status/Summary of slashdot leap-second crash on new years 2008-2009

Ben Goodger
2009-01-05T00:21:22Z

2009/1/5 David Newall <davidn@davidnewall.com>:
>> another poster said that NTP packets include information about this
>> month's leap second, so that implies that they could change monthly.
>
> Not "could change monthly" rather, "could change at any month".
>
> The frequency of zoneinfo updates would therefore be: every time the
> zones you care about change; and every time there's a leap second. No
> big effort.

Unfortunately, as has been pointed out, timezones are completely
unrelated to leap seconds.
NB. Leap seconds, positive or negative, potentially occur every six
months (June 30 or Dec 31), but since their introduction this
frequency has happened only once (in 1972); historically they have
been inserted on average every 1.5 years, but there have been only two
since 2000.

--
Benjamin Goodger

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