<p>RPM uses unix seconds-since-the-epoch for various event timestamps (e.g. RPMTAG_BUILDTIME/RPMTAG_INSTALLTIME) stored as a RPM_INT32_TYPE scalar in a Header.</p>
<p>Because scalar integers in RPM are (essentially) stored as an array with a single element, the tags used to store event time stamps can be extended to 2 elements without creating "legacy incompatibilities".</p>
<p>The 2nd element can then store either tv_usecs (as in BSD gettimeofday(2) struct timeval) or tv_nsecs (as in struct timespec).</p>
<p>Both usecs or nsecs could be used in RPM tags with some means (e.g. setting the 0x8000000 bit for tv_nsecs, or doing what glibc stat(2) is doing to move from struct timeval -> struct timespec).</p>
<p>I'll send along a patch for RPM in the next few days to start saving high precision timestamps in headers.</p>

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