[LEAPSECS] L-format. Re: Crunching Bulletin B numbers (POSIX time)

[Paul Sheer]

On Mon, 2011-02-21 at 11:17 +0000, Tony Finch wrote:

> On Mon, 21 Feb 2011, Ian Batten wrote:

> 

> > > Ascii timestamps do not have a way to include leap second information.

> >

> > But they trivially could.

> 

> Is there any standard way to do so? If there is I would love a citation!

> 


No, it's my own idea.

Hereby released to the world:

"2010-02-21 09:40:27 -0600 L0024"

I hereby name it "timestamp L-format".

It solves the problem of absolutely specifying a future time where you
don't know how many leap seconds there will be between now and then.

With the L included it means that the timestamp can be absolutely
converted to TAI and represents a precise caesium second on the TAI
scale.

Without the L it means a regular Posix time relative to the start of the
day - so called "appointment time".

In this way it is backwardly compatible.

However if leap seconds are published ten years in advance, it would
mostly obviate a need for these new timestamps.

-paul