Sharing - Leap Second Bug in RedHat

The UTC time standard, which is widely used for international timekeeping on computer systems, uses the international standard definition of the second, based on atomic clocks. However, the duration

of one mean solar day is slightly longer than 86,400 seconds (a UTC day). The purpose of a leap second is to compensate for this drift, by scheduling days with 86401 or 86399 international standard seconds.

Because the Earth's rotation speed varies in response to natural events, UTC leap seconds are irregularly spaced and unpredictable. The last leap second occured at 23:59:59 UTC on 31 December 2008. Leap seconds occur based on UTC time, and therefore are timezone independent and occur around the world at the same moment, regardless of local time.

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