I think this is the only way to do it.
>> Time.now.strftime("%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S.#{Time.now.usec} %z") => "2008/08/20 01:22:28.367899 +0000"
At the microsecond level, it’s possible for Time.now to change mid-evaluation, so if you *really* care about timing you could freeze the time object first and read from that:
>> now = Time.now => Wed Aug 20 01:40:26 +0000 2008 >> now.strftime("%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S.#{now.usec} %z %Z") => "2008/08/20 01:40:26.597940 +0000 UTC"
Happily, Time.parse will read that straight out of the box:
>> n = now.strftime("%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S.#{now.usec} %z %Z") => "2008/08/20 01:40:26.597940 +0000 UTC" >> Time.parse(n) => Wed Aug 20 01:40:26 +0000 2008 >> Time.parse(n).usec => 597940