Re: git-fast-import

From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Date: Feb 7, 2007, 22:39 UTC
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0702071428110.8424@woody.linux-foundation.org>
In-Reply-To: <200702072218.l17MIeSD005420@laptop13.inf.utfsm.cl>

On Wed, 7 Feb 2007, Horst H. von Brand wrote:

> 
> Say what? If I use the "raw" format with UTC offset, the offset is just
> ignored then?

The offset that git maintaines is basically always ignored by git except for pure printout purposes.

For example, when you traverse commits, git normally picks the next reachable commit to show by using the date. The UTC offset has no effect on anything.

In fact, when we parse a commit, we don't even *parse* the timezone info. Look in commit.c: parse_commit_date. The timezone really doesn't even exist as far as any "real" git operation is concerned. It's just saved away, and it's _shown_ in "git log", but it has no real meaning apart from that.

So git very much only works on UTC time internally, and the only thing that actually matters in a string like "1234567890 -0700" is the first part. The "-0700" is _literally_ just a comment that is only ever even parsed by "pretty_print_commit()".

Btw, CVS doesn't have any TZ info at all, so CVS also internally always saves in UTC. It then tends to print out logs in whatever timezone you happen to be in at the time of printout, afaik.

		Linus