Why does Git have a tea time?

In the date.c file in Git's source code, I note the following structure of special time names:

static const struct special {
    const char *name;
    void (*fn)(struct tm *, struct tm *, int *);
} special[] = {
    { "yesterday", date_yesterday },
    { "noon", date_noon },
    { "midnight", date_midnight },
    { "tea", date_tea },
    { "PM", date_pm },
    { "AM", date_am },
    { "never", date_never },
    { "now", date_now },
    { NULL }
};

I understand the utility (somewhat) of most of these, but why have a "tea" time (it evaluates to 17:00 hours)? Is this just an Easter egg of sorts?

Solution 1:

This commit might give you a clue as to why it was included: https://github.com/git/git/commit/a8aca418d6484400d6804e22717bd49ca06c28e9

I think it was suggested initially as a joke, but actually implemented to demonstrate the ability for users to include their own custom time/date periods:

On Fri, 18 Nov 2005, David Roundy wrote:
> Don't forget "high noon"!  (and perhaps "tea time"?)  :)


Done.

    [torvalds@g5 git]$ ./test-date "now" "midnight" "high noon" "tea-time"
    now -> bad -> Wed Dec 31 16:00:00 1969
    now -> Fri Nov 18 08:50:54 2005

    midnight -> bad -> Wed Dec 31 16:00:00 1969
    midnight -> Fri Nov 18 00:00:00 2005

    high noon -> bad -> Wed Dec 31 16:00:00 1969
    high noon -> Thu Nov 17 12:00:00 2005

    tea-time -> bad -> Wed Dec 31 16:00:00 1969
    tea-time -> Thu Nov 17 17:00:00 2005

Thanks for pointing out tea-time.

This is also written to easily extended to allow people to add their own
important dates like Christmas and their own birthdays.

Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <[email protected]>