Re: [PATCH] doc: technical details about the index file format

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Sep 2, 2010, 14:50 UTC
Message-ID: <7vlj7k42t7.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTi=wESk38u1XSTL1rd2__eQzHfSuq-EbqooxmcVw@mail.gmail.com>

Alex Riesen <raa.lkml@gmail.com> writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

>> +  32-bit ctime seconds, the last time a file's metadata changed
>> +    this is stat(2) data
>> +
>> +  32-bit ctime nanoseconds (modulo 1G)
>> +    this is stat(2) data
>
> Maybe I'm missing something, but I failed to find where "modulo 1G" comes from.

I think the above wants to say "seconds and sub-seconds are stored in separate fields, and latter is purely sub-seconds, never reaching nor exceeding a whole second" (gig == 10^-9) times nano (== 10^+9) is 1).

I personally do not think it is a good idea to say " (modulo 1G)" there; it is more confusing than without.

Either the reader knows, from seeing "this is stat(2) data", what seconds/nanoseconds mean, in which case the comment gives redundant information in cryptic terms, or the reader doesn't, in which case the concept of storing the timestamp as a (second, subsecond) tuple needs to be explained a lot better than the above to be understood.