os.utime(..., None) has poor resolution on Windows

[pitrou]

BPO	19727
Nosy	@tim-one, @loewis, @pitrou, @vstinner, @larryhastings, @tjguk, @briancurtin, @zooba
Files	utime_win.patch

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2013-11-23.14:23:45.183>
created_at = <Date 2013-11-23.01:15:52.139>
labels = ['type-bug', 'library', 'OS-windows']
title = 'os.utime(..., None) has poor resolution on Windows'
updated_at = <Date 2013-11-23.14:23:45.183>
user = 'https://github.com/pitrou'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2013-11-23.14:23:45.183>
actor = 'pitrou'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2013-11-23.14:23:45.183>
closer = 'pitrou'
components = ['Library (Lib)', 'Windows']
creation = <Date 2013-11-23.01:15:52.139>
creator = 'pitrou'
dependencies = []
files = ['32797']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 19727
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 5.0
messages = ['203943', '204007', '204009', '204022', '204027']
nosy_count = 9.0
nosy_names = ['tim.peters', 'loewis', 'pitrou', 'vstinner', 'larry', 'tim.golden', 'brian.curtin', 'python-dev', 'steve.dower']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue19727'
versions = ['Python 3.4']

[pitrou]

os.utime() uses the following code when times is None under Windows:

        SYSTEMTIME now;
        GetSystemTime(&now);
        if (!SystemTimeToFileTime(&now, &mtime) ||
            !SystemTimeToFileTime(&now, &atime)) {
            PyErr_SetFromWindowsErr(0);
            goto exit;
        }

The problem is GetSystemTime has poor resolution (milliseconds). Instead, it could call GetSystemTimeAsFileTime which writes directly into a FILETIME structure, and potentially (?) has better resolution.

(according to a comment on MSDN, "Resolution on Windows 7 seems to be sub-millisecond": http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms724397%28v=vs.85%29.aspx )

[pitrou]

Here is a patch.

[pitrou]

Redoing (indentation issue).

[vstinner]

utime_win.patch looks good to me.

[python-dev]

New changeset 6a9e262c5423 by Antoine Pitrou in branch 'default':
Issue bpo-19727: os.utime(..., None) is now potentially more precise under Windows.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/6a9e262c5423