[rrd-users] Question regarding missing data points

[Simon Hobson]

Alex van den Bogaerdt <alex at vandenbogaerdt.nl> wrote:

> You are not writing points, you are writing rates which are measured
> during some interval.
> The rate "8" is for time 1477433700..1477434300. This is however not
> allowed because of your heartbeat setting and gets lost.
> 
> What happens if you do update at time 1477434000, using value U  ?

Would that make a difference ?
I know that with a counter type, the second interval would still be unknown because the (b-a)/t calculation can't be done if a is unknown - but how does RRD handle the gauge type ? As "everything is a rate", does this limitation still apply with the gauge type ?