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doc: document and test @ prefix for raw timestamps

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The Git internal date format `<unix-timestamp> <time-zone-offset>`
fails to parse when the timestamp is less than 100,000,000 (fewer than
9 digits). This happens to avoid potential ambiguity with other date
formats such as `YYYYMMDD`, especially when used with approxidate.

To force the parser to interpret the value as a raw timestamp, it must
be prefixed with `@` (e.g., `@0 +0000`). This behavior was introduced
in 2c733fb24c (parse_date(): '@' prefix
forces git-timestamp, 2012-02-02) but was never documented.

Document the `@` prefix in `Documentation/date-formats.adoc` to make
this behavior explicit. Also add test cases to `t/t0006-date.sh` to
verify and demonstrate the difference between prefixed and unprefixed
small timestamps (e.g., `@2000` vs `2000`).

Signed-off-by: Luna Schwalbe <dev@luna.gl>
Co-authored-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
This commit is contained in:
Luna Schwalbe
2026-06-02 10:17:36 +02:00
committed by Junio C Hamano
parent 67ad42147a
commit 4018dc29ee
2 changed files with 16 additions and 0 deletions
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5
Documentation/date-formats.adoc
View File

@@ -9,6 +9,11 @@ Git internal format::
`<unix-timestamp>` is the number of seconds since the UNIX epoch.
`<time-zone-offset>` is a positive or negative offset from UTC.
For example CET (which is 1 hour ahead of UTC) is `+0100`.
+
It is safer to prepend the `<unix-timestamp>` with `@` (e.g.,
`@0 +0000`), which forces Git to interpret it as a raw timestamp. This
is required for values less than 100,000,000 (which have fewer than 9
digits) to avoid confusion with other date formats like `YYYYMMDD`.
RFC 2822::
The standard date format as described by RFC 2822, for example

11
t/t0006-date.sh
View File

@@ -138,6 +138,13 @@ check_parse '1969-12-31 23:59:59 Z' bad
check_parse '1969-12-31 23:59:59 +11' bad
check_parse '1969-12-31 23:59:59 -11' bad
# pathologically small timestamps requiring `@` prefix
check_parse '@0 +0000' '1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000'
check_parse '@99999999 +0000' '1973-03-03 09:46:39 +0000'
check_parse '99999999 +0000' bad
check_parse '@100000000 +0000' '1973-03-03 09:46:40 +0000'
check_parse '100000000 +0000' '1973-03-03 09:46:40 +0000'
REQUIRE_64BIT_TIME=HAVE_64BIT_TIME
check_parse '2099-12-31 23:59:59' '2099-12-31 23:59:59 +0000'
check_parse '2099-12-31 23:59:59 +00' '2099-12-31 23:59:59 +0000'
@@ -195,6 +202,10 @@ check_approxidate '6AM, June 7, 2009' '2009-06-07 06:00:00'
check_approxidate '2008-12-01' '2008-12-01 19:20:00'
check_approxidate '2009-12-01' '2009-12-01 19:20:00'
# ambiguous raw timestamp
check_approxidate '2000 +0000' '2000-08-30 19:20:00'
check_approxidate '@2000 +0000' '1970-01-01 00:33:20'
check_date_format_human() {
t=$(($GIT_TEST_DATE_NOW - $1))
echo "$t -> $2" >expect