Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!tikal!hplsla!hpubvwa!pur-ee!ks
From: ks@pur-ee
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: WARNING: TOD clock not initialized -- CHECK AND RESET THE DATE!
Message-ID: <7205@pur-ee>
Date: 4 Jan 88 00:31:00 GMT
References: <8801041745.AA29775@bu-cs.bu.edu>
Lines: 18

In article <8801032141.AA15091@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> dm@BFLY-VAX.BBN.COM writes:
>
>Could someone explain to the rest of us why adding a leap-second had
>any effect on Sun workstations other than making their clock be off by
>one second (more than usual)?  Or is 1988 one bit too much in some
>data structure?

The Sun3 and the software for its Time of Day chip has been developed since
the last leap year.  If the system clock drifts from the time of day
clock, it is, by default, resynced.  A routine converts the YYMMDD.HHMMSS.THT
from the TOD chip to unix time in seconds from the beginning of time
(00:00 Jan 1 1970 GMT).  This routine did this incorrectly during leap years.
A "--mon" was used in an argument to a MACRO, and in leap years, that argument
got evaluated twice.

Can you say time bomb?

						Kirk Smith