Add global setting how timestamps should be rendered

custom/conf/app.example.ini

@@ -1244,6 +1244,9 @@ LEVEL = Info
 ;; Change the sort type of the explore pages.
 ;; Default is "recentupdate", but you also have "alphabetically", "reverselastlogin", "newest", "oldest".
 ;EXPLORE_PAGING_DEFAULT_SORT = recentupdate
+;;
+;; Whether to prefer all timestamps to be rendered as absolute. Setting this to false means some timestamps would render as relative.
+;PREFER_ABSOLUTE_TIMESTAMPS = false
 
 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

docs/content/administration/config-cheat-sheet.en-us.md

@@ -231,6 +231,7 @@ The following configuration set `Content-Type: application/vnd.android.package-a
 - `ONLY_SHOW_RELEVANT_REPOS`: **false**: Whether to only show relevant repos on the explore page when no keyword is specified and default sorting is used.
     A repo is considered irrelevant if it's a fork or if it has no metadata (no description, no icon, no topic).
 - `EXPLORE_PAGING_DEFAULT_SORT`: **recentupdate**: Change the sort type of the explore pages. Valid values are "recentupdate", "alphabetically", "reverselastlogin", "newest" and "oldest"
+- `PREFER_ABSOLUTE_TIMESTAMPS`: **false**: Whether to prefer all timestamps to be rendered as absolute. Setting this to false means some timestamps would render as relative.
 
 ### UI - Admin (`ui.admin`)
 

modules/setting/ui.go

@@ -11,29 +11,30 @@ import (
 
 // UI settings
 var UI = struct {
-	ExplorePagingNum      int
-	SitemapPagingNum      int
-	IssuePagingNum        int
-	RepoSearchPagingNum   int
-	MembersPagingNum      int
-	FeedMaxCommitNum      int
-	FeedPagingNum         int
-	PackagesPagingNum     int
-	GraphMaxCommitNum     int
-	CodeCommentLines      int
-	ReactionMaxUserNum    int
-	MaxDisplayFileSize    int64
-	ShowUserEmail         bool
-	DefaultShowFullName   bool
-	DefaultTheme          string
-	Themes                []string
-	Reactions             []string
-	ReactionsLookup       container.Set[string] `ini:"-"`
-	CustomEmojis          []string
-	CustomEmojisMap       map[string]string `ini:"-"`
-	SearchRepoDescription bool
-	OnlyShowRelevantRepos bool
-	ExploreDefaultSort    string `ini:"EXPLORE_PAGING_DEFAULT_SORT"`
+	ExplorePagingNum         int
+	SitemapPagingNum         int
+	IssuePagingNum           int
+	RepoSearchPagingNum      int
+	MembersPagingNum         int
+	FeedMaxCommitNum         int
+	FeedPagingNum            int
+	PackagesPagingNum        int
+	GraphMaxCommitNum        int
+	CodeCommentLines         int
+	ReactionMaxUserNum       int
+	MaxDisplayFileSize       int64
+	ShowUserEmail            bool
+	DefaultShowFullName      bool
+	DefaultTheme             string
+	Themes                   []string
+	Reactions                []string
+	ReactionsLookup          container.Set[string] `ini:"-"`
+	CustomEmojis             []string
+	CustomEmojisMap          map[string]string `ini:"-"`
+	SearchRepoDescription    bool
+	OnlyShowRelevantRepos    bool
+	ExploreDefaultSort       string `ini:"EXPLORE_PAGING_DEFAULT_SORT"`
+	PreferAbsoluteTimestamps bool
 
 	AmbiguousUnicodeDetection bool
 

modules/timeutil/datetime.go

@@ -7,11 +7,12 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"html"
 	"html/template"
+	"strings"
 	"time"
 )
 
 // DateTime renders an absolute time HTML element by datetime.
-func DateTime(format string, datetime any) template.HTML {
+func DateTime(format string, datetime any, attrs ...string) template.HTML {
 	if p, ok := datetime.(*time.Time); ok {
 		datetime = *p
 	}
@@ -48,13 +49,15 @@ func DateTime(format string, datetime any) template.HTML {
 		panic(fmt.Sprintf("Unsupported time type %T", datetime))
 	}
 
+	extraAttrs := strings.Join(attrs, " ")
+
 	switch format {
 	case "short":
-		return template.HTML(fmt.Sprintf(`<relative-time format="datetime" year="numeric" month="short" day="numeric" weekday="" datetime="%s">%s</relative-time>`, datetimeEscaped, textEscaped))
+		return template.HTML(fmt.Sprintf(`<relative-time %s format="datetime" year="numeric" month="short" day="numeric" weekday="" datetime="%s">%s</relative-time>`, extraAttrs, datetimeEscaped, textEscaped))
 	case "long":
-		return template.HTML(fmt.Sprintf(`<relative-time format="datetime" year="numeric" month="long" day="numeric" weekday="" datetime="%s">%s</relative-time>`, datetimeEscaped, textEscaped))
+		return template.HTML(fmt.Sprintf(`<relative-time %s format="datetime" year="numeric" month="long" day="numeric" weekday="" datetime="%s">%s</relative-time>`, extraAttrs, datetimeEscaped, textEscaped))
 	case "full":
-		return template.HTML(fmt.Sprintf(`<relative-time format="datetime" weekday="" year="numeric" month="short" day="numeric" hour="numeric" minute="numeric" second="numeric" datetime="%s">%s</relative-time>`, datetimeEscaped, textEscaped))
+		return template.HTML(fmt.Sprintf(`<relative-time %s format="datetime" weekday="" year="numeric" month="short" day="numeric" hour="numeric" minute="numeric" second="numeric" datetime="%s">%s</relative-time>`, extraAttrs, datetimeEscaped, textEscaped))
 	}
 	panic(fmt.Sprintf("Unsupported format %s", format))
 }

modules/timeutil/since.go

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
+	"code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/setting"
 	"code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/translation"
 )
 
@@ -132,6 +133,9 @@ func timeSinceUnix(then, now time.Time, lang translation.Locale) template.HTML {
 
 // TimeSince renders relative time HTML given a time.Time
 func TimeSince(then time.Time, lang translation.Locale) template.HTML {
+	if setting.UI.PreferAbsoluteTimestamps {
+		return DateTime("full", then, `class="time-since"`)
+	}
 	return timeSinceUnix(then, time.Now(), lang)
 }
 

web_src/js/components/DiffCommitSelector.vue

@@ -247,6 +247,7 @@ export default {
             <div class="gt-ellipsis text light-2">
               {{ commit.committer_or_author_name }}
               <span class="text right">
+                <!-- TODO: make this respect the PreferAbsoluteTimestamps setting -->
                 <relative-time class="time-since" prefix="" :datetime="commit.time" data-tooltip-content data-tooltip-interactive="true">{{ commit.time }}</relative-time>
               </span>
             </div>