ActiveModel timestamp fields: where does the timestamp come from?

Question

In a Rail model, when a record gets added/updated, is the timestamp given per the clock on the rails server or the database server?

Answer 1

A quick Ack of the Rails source reveals it to be the Rails server time, as returned by Ruby's Time.now method:

private
  def create_with_timestamps #:nodoc:
    if record_timestamps
      current_time = current_time_from_proper_timezone

      write_attribute('created_at', current_time) if respond_to?(:created_at) && created_at.nil?
      write_attribute('created_on', current_time) if respond_to?(:created_on) && created_on.nil?

      write_attribute('updated_at', current_time) if respond_to?(:updated_at) && updated_at.nil?
      write_attribute('updated_on', current_time) if respond_to?(:updated_on) && updated_on.nil?
    end

    create_without_timestamps
  end

  def update_with_timestamps(*args) #:nodoc:
    if record_timestamps && (!partial_updates? || changed?)
      current_time = current_time_from_proper_timezone

      write_attribute('updated_at', current_time) if respond_to?(:updated_at)
      write_attribute('updated_on', current_time) if respond_to?(:updated_on)
    end

    update_without_timestamps(*args)
  end

  def current_time_from_proper_timezone
    self.class.default_timezone == :utc ? Time.now.utc : Time.now
  end