GNU bug report logs - #20199
Enhancement request for date's "-d" option: different epochs

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Package: coreutils; Severity: wishlist; Reported by: "Ulrich Windl" <Ulrich.Windl@HIDDEN>; dated Wed, 25 Mar 2015 12:27:02 UTC; Maintainer for coreutils is bug-coreutils@HIDDEN.

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To: Ulrich Windl <Ulrich.Windl@HIDDEN>, 
 20199 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#20199: Enhancement request for date's "-d" option: different
 epochs
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 <5512B3AC.7030509@HIDDEN>
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On 25/03/15 13:10, Pádraig Brady wrote:
> On 25/03/15 12:26, Ulrich Windl wrote:
>> Hi!
>>
>> I'm not subscribed to this list, and I hope this is the right place to report an enhancement request as there seems to be no bugzilla for that.
>> Anyway: When downloading the current leap seconds list for out NTP server I realized that the dates there seem to be specified in seconds from 1900-01-01_00:00:00 on one hand, and on the other I realized that date's option "-d" only allows UNIX epochs using the "@" notation.
>>
>> Therefore I suggest to allow different starting epochs, possible using a syntax like "date -d '1900-01-01+2287785599'" to print the date and time of 2287785599 seconds past January 1st 1900. ("Like" means I suggest the semantics, but are not really proposing a concrete syntax; possibly there are smarter guy around than me)
>>
>> Also being able to decode hexadecimal NTP timestamps would be a nice feature: NTp timestamps look like this:
>> d8bd24ef.a8e2bb68 meaning "Wed, Mar 25 2015 13:13:35.659...", so it's 32 bit for the seconds and another 32 bit for the fractional seconds (see page 9 of the PostScript or PDF version of RFC 1305: "NTP timestamps are represented as a 64-bit
>> unsigned fixed-point number, in seconds relative to 0h on 1 January 1900. The integer part is in the
>> first 32 bits and the fraction part in the last 32 bits.")
>>
>> Maybe a "tagged" syntax like "-d NTP:d8bd24ef.a8e2bb6" could be used...
>>
>> (For consistency other tags like "UNIX:" for the UNIX epoch and "MS-WIN:" for Microsoft Windows could be used. Again smart guys probably know more important epochs than I do)
> 
> Note offsets can be negative, so you could set the offset like:
> 
>   $ sec=1234567890
>   $ date -d @$(($sec + $(date -d 1/1/1900 +%s)))
>   Tue Feb 14 23:56:51 GMT 1939

Actually we can use date's relative date support for this:

  $ date -d '1900-01-01 +1234567890 seconds'
  Tue Feb 14 23:56:51 GMT 1939

cheers,
Pádraig.




Information forwarded to bug-coreutils@HIDDEN:
bug#20199; Package coreutils. Full text available.

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Subject: Re: bug#20199: Enhancement request for date's "-d" option: different
 epochs
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On 25/03/15 12:26, Ulrich Windl wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I'm not subscribed to this list, and I hope this is the right place to report an enhancement request as there seems to be no bugzilla for that.
> Anyway: When downloading the current leap seconds list for out NTP server I realized that the dates there seem to be specified in seconds from 1900-01-01_00:00:00 on one hand, and on the other I realized that date's option "-d" only allows UNIX epochs using the "@" notation.
> 
> Therefore I suggest to allow different starting epochs, possible using a syntax like "date -d '1900-01-01+2287785599'" to print the date and time of 2287785599 seconds past January 1st 1900. ("Like" means I suggest the semantics, but are not really proposing a concrete syntax; possibly there are smarter guy around than me)
> 
> Also being able to decode hexadecimal NTP timestamps would be a nice feature: NTp timestamps look like this:
> d8bd24ef.a8e2bb68 meaning "Wed, Mar 25 2015 13:13:35.659...", so it's 32 bit for the seconds and another 32 bit for the fractional seconds (see page 9 of the PostScript or PDF version of RFC 1305: "NTP timestamps are represented as a 64-bit
> unsigned fixed-point number, in seconds relative to 0h on 1 January 1900. The integer part is in the
> first 32 bits and the fraction part in the last 32 bits.")
> 
> Maybe a "tagged" syntax like "-d NTP:d8bd24ef.a8e2bb6" could be used...
> 
> (For consistency other tags like "UNIX:" for the UNIX epoch and "MS-WIN:" for Microsoft Windows could be used. Again smart guys probably know more important epochs than I do)

Note offsets can be negative, so you could set the offset like:

  $ sec=1234567890
  $ date -d @$(($sec + $(date -d 1/1/1900 +%s)))
  Tue Feb 14 23:56:51 GMT 1939

cheers,
Pádraig.




Information forwarded to bug-coreutils@HIDDEN:
bug#20199; Package coreutils. Full text available.

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Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 13:26:25 +0100
From: "Ulrich Windl" <Ulrich.Windl@HIDDEN>
To: <bug-coreutils@HIDDEN>
Subject: Enhancement request for date's "-d" option: different epochs
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Hi!

I'm not subscribed to this list, and I hope this is the right place to =
report an enhancement request as there seems to be no bugzilla for that.
Anyway: When downloading the current leap seconds list for out NTP server =
I realized that the dates there seem to be specified in seconds from =
1900-01-01_00:00:00 on one hand, and on the other I realized that date's =
option "-d" only allows UNIX epochs using the "@" notation.

Therefore I suggest to allow different starting epochs, possible using a =
syntax like "date -d '1900-01-01+2287785599'" to print the date and time =
of 2287785599 seconds past January 1st 1900. ("Like" means I suggest the =
semantics, but are not really proposing a concrete syntax; possibly there =
are smarter guy around than me)

Also being able to decode hexadecimal NTP timestamps would be a nice =
feature: NTp timestamps look like this:
d8bd24ef.a8e2bb68 meaning "Wed, Mar 25 2015 13:13:35.659...", so it's 32 =
bit for the seconds and another 32 bit for the fractional seconds (see =
page 9 of the PostScript or PDF version of RFC 1305: "NTP timestamps are =
represented as a 64-bit
unsigned fixed-point number, in seconds relative to 0h on 1 January 1900. =
The integer part is in the
first 32 bits and the fraction part in the last 32 bits.")

Maybe a "tagged" syntax like "-d NTP:d8bd24ef.a8e2bb6" could be used...

(For consistency other tags like "UNIX:" for the UNIX epoch and "MS-WIN:" =
for Microsoft Windows could be used. Again smart guys probably know more =
important epochs than I do)

Regards,
Ulrich







Acknowledgement sent to "Ulrich Windl" <Ulrich.Windl@HIDDEN>:
New bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to bug-coreutils@HIDDEN. Full text available.
Report forwarded to bug-coreutils@HIDDEN:
bug#20199; Package coreutils. Full text available.
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