[Python-Dev] os.getmtime now returns a float?

["Martin v. Löwis"]

Gregory P. Smith wrote:
> os.path.getmtime returns a float on linux (2.5a2/b1 HEAD); in 2.4 it
> returned an int.  this change makes sense, its what time.time returns.
> 
> should there be a note in Misc/NEWS or whatsnew mentioning this minor
> change (or did i miss it)?  It breaks code that unintentionally
> depended on it returning an int.

There is an entry in Misc/NEWS:

- stat_float_times is now True.

The change was originally announced in

http://www.python.org/doc/2.3/whatsnew/node18.html

which says

During testing, it was found that some applications will break if time
stamps are floats. For compatibility, when using the tuple interface of
the stat_result time stamps will be represented as integers. When using
named fields (a feature first introduced in Python 2.2), time stamps are
still represented as integers, unless os.stat_float_times() is invoked
to enable float return values:

>>> os.stat("/tmp").st_mtime
1034791200
>>> os.stat_float_times(True)
>>> os.stat("/tmp").st_mtime
1034791200.6335014

In Python 2.4, the default will change to always returning floats.

Regards,
Martin