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Should time() return an implementation defined time representation or should it return elapsed seconds since midnight January 1 1970 GMT?

The current POSIX draft already states that it returns the latter; do we want to change this?

No. . .I want to make sure it stays that way.

X3J11 also has "time" and "time_t", although since they're not defining an OS standard they do not require "time_t" to be an integral type representing seconds since the epoch.

Ideally, I'd like to see both X3J11 and POSIX define time_t as elapsed seconds since midnight January 1 1970 GMT, and see them both define the time function as returning such a value. If this isn't possible, I'd like to see X3J11 define *differently-named* types and functions--tempus_t and tempus, or whatever. My fear is that there are programs out there that "know" what a time_t is that "know" what the "time" function returns, and that will break if things are changed. -- UUCP: ..seismo!elsie!ado ARPA: elsie!ado@seismo.ARPA Elsie and Ado are trademarks of Borden, Inc. and Ampex.