[coyotos-dev] coyotos.sleep, sleepTill, the epoch

[Valerio Bellizzomi]

On 12/02/2007, at 9.39, Jonathan S. Shapiro wrote:

>On Mon, 2007-02-12 at 00:15 +0100, Valerio Bellizzomi wrote:
>> It may be sufficient but it is not precise. If for example, I install
the
>> machine on Friday and boot it on Monday, well first boot time can be
used
>> but it will not tell the truth. Because the machine was off during the
>> weekend, technically we don't care, but administratively it makes some
>> difference.
>> So, I propose that the installation tool simply writes down on disk the
>> time/date of copy completion in some defined disk area, this would be
the
>> precise "image write" time.
>
>Val:
>
>1. Where do you propose that the installation tool should get this
>information from? On many systems no wall clock exists (at all).

I suppose that any hardware has at least an hardware clock.
I'd use a preconfigured single floppy system to grab the time from an ntp
server and set the hardware clock. After that I'd reboot the machine from
the coyotos installation media.

>
>2. Why do you care about this useless precision? Give me a concrete
>motivating use-case.

I am still trying to rationalize the whole thing. My feeling is that there
exist at least one or two valid use-cases.

val