Re: time_t size: The year 2038 bug?

From: Mike Porter (mike@UDel.Edu)
Date: Thu Jan 06 2000 - 21:04:52 EST


SAS/C, which runs on OS/390, defines time_t as a double. The whole
part is seconds since 1970 and the fractional part accounts for
time less than a second. Seems to work OK. I've written lots of
code that runs on OS/390 and Linux and never noticed any problems.
Just a thought.

As for thinking that code running now won't be running in 2038...
that's short sighted thinking. It's the same thinking that cost US
corporations 100 billion dollars. Perhaps we don't need to change
time_t for kernel 2.4, but it should be done soon, and done for
machines where long != 64 bits also. I'm about to donate an old
MAC to the local Red Cross Chapter. They asked for a monitor and
are excited to get a whole machine. Old computer hardware,
properly designed, should be just as useful as an old car or
tractor - there's no reason to plan to make it unusable by 2038.

Mike

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