> You complained in msg62869 about the original patch that calling 
sysconf
> on every call leads to an unacceptable slowdown. Your one-line patch
> calls sysconf five times on each call when HZ is not defined.

That's why I said that was a matter of personal preference.  I use 3 
different systems: i386 linux, x86_64 linux and Mac OS X and the last is 
not mission critical.  On i386 linux HZ is already defined as sysconf 
call, on x86_64 HZ is defined as 100 and it happens to be the correct 
value.  On MacOS X, HZ is not defined, and os.times exhibits the bug. 
One-line patch will make MacOS X behave the same as i386 Linux, which is 
fine for me, but I will oppose any changes that affect x86_64 linux 
performance.

Does anyone know of a platform where HZ is defined to a wrong value?  WE 
may want to undef or redefine HZ on such platforms.