# warning: clock skew detected. Your build may be incomplete.

- **ID:** `git/warning-large-filesystem-time-skew`
- **Domain:** git
- **Category:** runtime_error
- **Verification:** ai_generated
- **Fix Rate:** 90%

## Root Cause

The system clock on the machine running git is significantly ahead or behind the timestamps of files in the working tree, causing git to misjudge file modification times and potentially skip rebuilds or produce stale outputs.

## Version Compatibility

| Version | Status | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---------|--------|------------|------------|
| git 2.20.0 | active | — | — |
| git 2.38.0 | active | — | — |
| git 2.45.0 | active | — | — |

## Workarounds

1. **sudo ntpdate -s time.nist.gov  # Sync system clock with an NTP server to eliminate the skew** (90% success)
   ```
   sudo ntpdate -s time.nist.gov  # Sync system clock with an NTP server to eliminate the skew
   ```
2. **git add -A && git commit --allow-empty -m 'reset timestamps'  # Force a commit to reset internal timestamps, but this is a temporary fix** (60% success)
   ```
   git add -A && git commit --allow-empty -m 'reset timestamps'  # Force a commit to reset internal timestamps, but this is a temporary fix
   ```

## Dead Ends

- **** — Running git clean -fd to remove untracked files does not fix the clock skew issue; it only deletes files without addressing the root cause. (95% fail)
- **** — Manually touching all files with touch * can temporarily mask the issue but the skew will reappear on subsequent operations if clock is not fixed. (70% fail)