[time] Leap seconds?

[Scott Baker]

So if leap seconds are arbitraliy added by scientist how does the Linux 
date command know when one is added. Since leap seconds are only taken into 
account when displaying human readable time, would some system library need 
to be updated with that information in it, when a leap second is introduced?

Is that something that's part of the timezone file? Say I've got a perl 
script, or PHP script converting unixtime to human readable time, will they 
have to be updated after a leap second is introduced? Or does some system 
library handle those conversions?

-- 
Scott Baker - Canby Telcom
RHCE - System Administrator - 503.266.8253