freebsd – What is the difference between bintime() and nanotime()?

Question:

What is the difference between nanotime(9) and bintime(9) if the return value of bintime(struct bintime) can be converted using bintime2timespec to nanotime(timespec) ?

Answer:

bintime uses structures with more natural fields, which are much simpler to perform arithmetic on and therefore more efficient to use. Current versions of the kernel and system utilities use exactly bintime structures for operations with timestamps, converting to other formats only when necessary. Roughly speaking, nanotime implemented via bintime .

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