trailing whitespace in IERS leap-seconds.list file
Martin Burnicki writes that the IERS's current leap-seconds.list file has a notice that it's in the public domain. Thanks: this means there's no copyright issue in including a copy of the file in the Time Zone Database (TZDB). While testing that, though, I got the following warning from our version control system: .git/rebase-apply/patch:284: trailing whitespace. # Since the adoption of this system in 1972 it has been necessary to add a number of seconds to UTC, warning: 1 line adds whitespace errors. This warning occurs because line 21 of <https://hpiers.obspm.fr/iers/bul/bulc/ntp/leap-seconds.list> contains a trailing space character. Could you please remove it? That will lessen aggravation downstream. Thanks.
Dear Paul, I have just remove that trailing space character, including the script that generates this file. Best regards, Christian Le 09/01/2024 à 02:30, Paul Eggert a écrit :
Martin Burnicki writes that the IERS's current leap-seconds.list file has a notice that it's in the public domain. Thanks: this means there's no copyright issue in including a copy of the file in the Time Zone Database (TZDB).
While testing that, though, I got the following warning from our version control system:
.git/rebase-apply/patch:284: trailing whitespace. # Since the adoption of this system in 1972 it has been necessary to add a number of seconds to UTC, warning: 1 line adds whitespace errors.
This warning occurs because line 21 of <https://hpiers.obspm.fr/iers/bul/bulc/ntp/leap-seconds.list> contains a trailing space character. Could you please remove it? That will lessen aggravation downstream.
Thanks.
-- Christian Bizouard Observatoire de Paris / SYRTE Service National de la Rotation de la Terre, Directeur https://eoc.obspm.fr Tel: +33140512335 / +33651374063
On Tue, 9 Jan 2024 10:02:34 +0100, Christian Bizouard wrote:
I have just remove that trailing space character, including the script that generates this file.
Thanks. I installed this into TZDB's development repository by applying the attached patch. This patch changes leap-seconds.list to be a copy of the IERS version instead of the NIST version, which as a side effect changes comments and white space and expiration date and checksums to match the IERS copy, I now see a timestamp discrepancy, though. The timestamp of the file (contained in the HTTP header for <https://hpiers.obspm.fr/iers/bul/bulc/ntp/leap-seconds.list>) is: Last-Modified: Tue, 09 Jan 2024 08:56:09 GMT The timestamp within the file, though, is: # The following line shows the last update of this file in NTP timestamp: # #$ 3913697179 This is the number of seconds since 1900-01-01 00:00:00 (not counting leap seconds), and I compute this to be 2024-01-08 10:06:19 UTC. Given the timestamp of your email, the HTTP header timestamp seems to be right and the file's internal NTP timestamp seems to be wrong. My theory is that "the last update of this file" does not actually mean the last update of the file (which would include its comment lines and white space); it is talking merely about the last update of lines starting with non-"#" (the leap second lines) and the line starting with "#@" (the expiration date), ignoring any whitespace changes in those lines. If my theory is correct, it would be helpful to change "the last update of this file" to "the last update of this file's leap second data and expiration date". That would better reflect how the file is actually maintained. PS. I hope you don't mind this trivia - sometimes I think that's largely what we do at TZDB....
Paul Eggert via tz wrote:
On Tue, 9 Jan 2024 10:02:34 +0100, Christian Bizouard wrote:
I have just remove that trailing space character, including the script that generates this file.
Thanks. I installed this into TZDB's development repository by applying the attached patch. This patch changes leap-seconds.list to be a copy of the IERS version instead of the NIST version, which as a side effect changes comments and white space and expiration date and checksums to match the IERS copy,
I now see a timestamp discrepancy, though. The timestamp of the file (contained in the HTTP header for <https://hpiers.obspm.fr/iers/bul/bulc/ntp/leap-seconds.list>) is:
Last-Modified: Tue, 09 Jan 2024 08:56:09 GMT
The timestamp within the file, though, is:
# The following line shows the last update of this file in NTP timestamp: # #$ 3913697179
This is the number of seconds since 1900-01-01 00:00:00 (not counting leap seconds), and I compute this to be 2024-01-08 10:06:19 UTC.
3913697179 / 2024-01-08 10:06:19 is obviously related to the creation date of the original version of the file. Please keep in mind that originally, leap-seconds.list has been a symbolic link to the original file, in this case leap-seconds.3913697179. This has been the case since the file format was introduced by Judah Levine and David L. Mills in 2000. So actually, the file extension of the original file and the last update timestamp inside the file should be the same, and match the creation date of the file, in this case 3913697179 for the original file. I don't know the script that creates the file, but it looks like this basically works correctly. I'm assuming that for the latest change to remove the trailing space, the script has been updated and also the existing original file has been modified. A proper solution would probably be to re-run the script to create a new file, without trailing space, but with consistent "last update" time stamp and file name ending, and file time. Since the basic information in the file doesn't change, creating a new one should do no harm to folks who already use the version from January, 8. Martin -- Martin Burnicki Senior Software Engineer MEINBERG Funkuhren GmbH & Co. KG Email: martin.burnicki@meinberg.de Phone: +49 5281 9309-414 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinburnicki/ Lange Wand 9, 31812 Bad Pyrmont, Germany Amtsgericht Hannover 17HRA 100322 Geschäftsführer/Managing Directors: Natalie Meinberg, Werner Meinberg, Andre Hartmann, Heiko Gerstung Websites: https://www.meinberg.de https://www.meinbergglobal.com
On 2024-01-10 01:01, Martin Burnicki wrote:
A proper solution would probably be to re-run the script to create a new file, without trailing space, but with consistent "last update" time stamp and file name ending, and file time.
Yes, that's what I was hinting at, though I didn't say so explicitly. Ideally the HTTP Last-Modified: timestamp for leap-seconds.list would be identical to the file's internal "last update" time, and would specify the preferred timezone for the timestamp. Presumably the IERS script that generates leap-seconds.list could use the POSIX "touch" command to set the file's timestamp appropriately. Currently, TZDB is using the HTTP Last-Modified: timestamp but with the Europe/Paris timezone, as that seems to best reflect how the file is actually maintained. This approach could easily be changed if we get better info about file maintenance, or if the file maintenance procedure changes. TZDB is also using the file's "Questions or comments to:" section to construct the author name and email address for committing changes to leap-seconds.list.
participants (3)
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Christian Bizouard -
Martin Burnicki -
Paul Eggert