Time.Now() always return initial UNIX time

[notJoon]

Description

Found this while checking #2076

When you call time.Now(), it should return the elapsed time since UTC January 1, 1970 00:00:00. However, when you call this function and print the time as shown below, it outputs the value 1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC m=+0.000000001. It seems that instead of the elapsed time from that point, it is printing that point in time itself.

package main

import (
	"time"
)

func main() {
	umt := time.Now()
	println(umt)
}

// output:
1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC m=+0.000000001

When you run the code below, it prints the current time in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH-MM-SS, and you can see the initial UNIX time is displayed.

import (
	"time"
)

func main() {
	umt := time.Now().UTC().Format("2006-01-02 15:04:05")
	println(umt)
}

// output:
1970-01-01 00:00:00

Currently, there are two version of time.Now(): one that is a ported version of the Go standard library and another that is handled by native binding. I'm not sure which one is actually being called, but I think the latter implmentation will be executed.

The function implemented with native binding calculates the time using the Timestamp and TimestampNano fields of ExecContext. I suspect that these fields might be storing a value of 0, causing all times to be output as the UNIX epoch time.

gno/gnovm/stdlibs/std/context.go

Lines 10 to 22 in a1ab6a1

	type ExecContext struct {
	ChainID string
	Height int64
	Timestamp int64 // seconds
	TimestampNano int64 // nanoseconds, only used for testing.
	Msg sdk.Msg
	OrigCaller crypto.Bech32Address
	OrigPkgAddr crypto.Bech32Address
	OrigSend std.Coins
	OrigSendSpent *std.Coins // mutable
	Banker BankerInterface
	EventLogger *sdk.EventLogger
	}

gno/gnovm/stdlibs/time/time.go

Lines 10 to 17 in a1ab6a1

	func X_now(m *gno.Machine) (sec int64, nsec int32, mono int64) {
	if m == nil || m.Context == nil {
	return 0, 0, 0
	}
	ctx := std.GetContext(m)
	return ctx.Timestamp, int32(ctx.TimestampNano), ctx.Timestamp*int64(time.Second) + ctx.TimestampNano
	}

[grepsuzette]

In case of a main() run with gno run your_main.gno it's the second case you mention. So:

gno/gnovm/stdlibs/native.go

Lines 945 to 957 in a1ab6a1

	{
	"time",
	"now",
	[]gno.FieldTypeExpr{},
	[]gno.FieldTypeExpr{
	{Name: gno.N("r0"), Type: gno.X("int64")},
	{Name: gno.N("r1"), Type: gno.X("int32")},
	{Name: gno.N("r2"), Type: gno.X("int64")},
	},
	func(m *gno.Machine) {
	r0, r1, r2 := libs_time.X_now(
	m,
	)

calls...

gno/gnovm/stdlibs/time/time.go

Lines 10 to 17 in a1ab6a1

	func X_now(m *gno.Machine) (sec int64, nsec int32, mono int64) {
	if m == nil || m.Context == nil {
	return 0, 0, 0
	}
	ctx := std.GetContext(m)
	return ctx.Timestamp, int32(ctx.TimestampNano), ctx.Timestamp*int64(time.Second) + ctx.TimestampNano
	}

where the machine is set, but m.Context == nil thus returning 0, 0, 0 (I tested this adding panics and recompiling the code).

Are there counterindications to not want the actual timestamps here?

If we do, we probably want to reduce the precision of the returned timestamps, because of side-channels vulns like meltdown, as divulging precise timing information could be used to create a more effective attack model.

[leohhhn]

cc @thehowl

[jefft0]

Hello @notJoon . Do you think this could be related to the Time.Now() issue reported in #2960 ?

[notJoon]

Hello @notJoon . Do you think this could be related to the Time.Now() issue reported in #2960 ?

not sure, but maybe related 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

[thehowl]

#851 (comment)

@MikaelVallenet is going to take up a larger refactor of time - I think we can also move time.Now() in testing to be at the time of doing the tests. Though I think this should be purely aesthetical; it should not shift in the test as we shouldn't be giving the system time, even during tests (because the time won't ever be changing when you work on-chain).

[thehowl]

I'll close this in favour of #851, as I think this issue adds little additional context to that anyway.