> On Apr 2, 2026, at 15:28, Chao Li <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On Apr 2, 2026, at 12:17, Lukas Fittl <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Chao,
>> 
>> On Wed, Apr 1, 2026 at 8:10 PM Chao Li <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> This morning, as part of my usual routine, I synced the master branch and 
>>> read through the recent commits. While reading 82c0cb4e672, I noticed a 
>>> mistake in an error message. The relevant code is like:
>>> ```
>>> diff = INSTR_TIME_GET_NANOSEC(diff_time);
>>> 
>>> fprintf(stderr, _("Time warp: %d ms\n"), diff);
>>> ```
>>> 
>>> Here, “diff" is in nanoseconds, but the error message prints ms as the 
>>> unit, which is incorrect.
>> 
>> Good catch!
>> 
>> It looks like the use of nanoseconds for "diff" got introduced last
>> year in 0b096e379e6f9bd49 (as you note later in the email, today's
>> commit didn't actually change that part), CCing Tom and Hannu as
>> authors of that earlier change.
>> 
>> That said, its a bit odd that we were using INSTR_TIME_GET_MICROSEC
>> there before that earlier commit, but called it "ms" (i.e.
>> milliseconds) in the error message.
>> 
>>> 
>>> To fix that, I think there are two possible options:
>>> 
>>> 1. Use INSTR_TIME_GET_MILLISEC to get “diff"
>>> 2. Change “ms" to “ns" in the error message
>>> 
>>> After reading through the whole file, I think option 2 is the right fix. 
>>> While doing that, I also noticed another issue.
>>> 
>>> “diff" is currently defined as int32. Although one might think that is 
>>> enough for a time delta, I believe it should be int64 for two reasons:
>>> 
>>> * INSTR_TIME_GET_NANOSEC() explicitly returns int64:
>>> ```
>>> #define INSTR_TIME_GET_NANOSEC(t) \
>>>              ((int64) (t).ticks)
>>> ```
>>> 
>>> * The current code has a sanity check for backward clock drift:
>>> ```
>>>       /* Did time go backwards? */
>>>       if (unlikely(diff < 0))
>>>       {
>>>           fprintf(stderr, _("Detected clock going backwards in time.\n"));
>>>           fprintf(stderr, _("Time warp: %d ms\n"), diff);
>>>           exit(1);
>>>       }
>>> ```
>>> Clock jumping forward is also possible, and a forward jump of about 2.14 
>>> seconds would overflow int32 when expressed in nanoseconds, making the 
>>> value appear negative. In that case, the code could report a “backwards” 
>>> clock jump when the actual jump was forwards, which would be misleading.
>> 
>> I agree it doesn't seem sound to use an int32 for storing the result
>> of INSTR_TIME_GET_NANOSEC. It looks like we may also need to adjust
>> the call to pg_leftmost_one_pos32 though if we actually accept that
>> large a "diff" value, as in your patch.
> 
> You are right. Changed to pg_leftmost_one_pos64 in v2.
> 
>> 
>> Maybe we should error out if the diff is larger than an int32, noting
>> a positive time drift?
> 
> I agree we should warn/fail upon clock forwards drift. But I doubt int32 is 
> too big (~2.14 seconds), I consider 1 second could be a too big threshold. 
> Let’s wait for more voices on this.
> 
>> 
>> Independently of that, its worth noting we could easily emit the diff
>> in a larger unit (micro or milliseconds) for easier interpretation, by
>> just calling INSTR_TIME_GET_MICROSEC / INSTR_TIME_GET_MILLISEC on the
>> "diff_time" again.
>> 
> 
> Given the error should rarely happen, I personally feel that might not be 
> super helpful. Also, if the drift is just beyond the threshold, bumping to 
> microsecond or millisecond might print just 0.
> 
> PFA v2 - updated 0002 for pg_leftmost_one_pos64.
> 
> Best regards,
> --
> Chao Li (Evan)
> HighGo Software Co., Ltd.
> https://www.highgo.com/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> <v2-0001-pg_test_timing-fix-unit-in-backward-clock-warning.patch><v2-0002-pg_test_timing-use-int64-for-largest-observed-tim.patch>

PFA v3: Fixed a CI failure.

Best regards,
--
Chao Li (Evan)
HighGo Software Co., Ltd.
https://www.highgo.com/




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Attachment: v3-0002-pg_test_timing-use-int64-for-largest-observed-tim.patch
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