Re: [PATCH] CodingGuidelines: st_mtimespec vs st_mtim vs st_mtime
On Fri, Apr 10, 2026 at 11:10 AM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
Show 26 quoted lines
>
> Most unfortunately macOS does not support st_[amc]tim for timestamps
> down to nanosecond resolution as POSIX systems.
>
> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
> ---
> Documentation/CodingGuidelines | 6 ++++++
> 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git c/Documentation/CodingGuidelines w/Documentation/CodingGuidelines
> index 4992e52093..4e54139fd7 100644
> --- c/Documentation/CodingGuidelines
> +++ w/Documentation/CodingGuidelines
> @@ -693,6 +693,12 @@ For C programs:
> char *dogs[] = ...;
> walk_all_dogs(dogs);
>
> + - For file timestamps, do not use "st_mtim" (and other timestamp
> + members in "struct stat") unconditionally; not everybody is POSIX
> + (grep for USE_ST_TIMESPEC). If you only need timestamp in whole
> + second resolution, "st_mtime" should work fine everywhere.
> +
> +
> For Perl programs:
>
> - Most of the C guidelines above apply.
Looks good to me. As a minor nit, "need timestamp" -> "need a timestamp".