• uis
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    2 months ago

    not unless somehow the system clock was modified while it was running…

    Which is how most systems handle leap seconds.

    • arc
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      2 months ago

      Leap seconds still make time go forwards, not backwards. NTP clients would also resolve small time discrepancies while still advancing forwards prior to the next time sync.

      • uis
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        2 months ago

        Leap seconds can make time go both ways, but adding them makes time stop/go back because 24:00:00 cannot be represented as 1/86400 part of day N instead of day N+1 on major OSes. And they were only added so far.

        • arc
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          2 months ago

          It doesn’t work like that. UTC goes forward always. Leap seconds are scheduled and known in advance. NTP time services will just smear time advancement a little to account for an additional second. Time never has to go backwards. This is how Google does it.

          • uis
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            2 months ago

            This is how Google does it in their datacenters, but not major OSes by default