Gap between Hardware Clock and System Clock on Linux Real-time OS

Updated Mar 17, 2025

Reported In

Operating System

  • LabVIEW Real-Time (NI Linux Real-Time)

Issue Details

When I execute the following command on LinuxRT, I notice a difference between the timestamps. Why?

while :; do hwclock --show; date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%N"; sleep 1; done

Solution

There is a slight difference between the hardware clock and the system clock. The difference typically ranges from 0.1 to 0.9 seconds.