Linux is ready for the end of time

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nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,086
Linux developers have seen this coming for decades. So, Linux kernel developer Arnd Bergmann and others have been working on a repair. These corrections are now in the forthcoming Linux 5.6 kernel. Bergmann explained, "Linux-5.6, or my backport of the patches to 5.4, should be the first release that can serve as a base for a 32-bit system designed to run beyond year 2038."
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Now, you may be wondering -- since we're all running 64-bit computers these days -- why is this even an issue. Well, it's like this. First, many embedded systems and Internet of Things (IoT) devices are still running 32-bit operating systems. Indeed, by 2038, there will probably still be new 32-bit devices arriving in the market.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-is-ready-for-the-end-of-time/
 

402DF855

Joined Feb 9, 2013
271
Never really understood why UTC ends when the 32nd bit flips. Time should "end" in 2106 not 2038. Over the next eighteen years we can declare time_t as unsigned. How hard can it be?
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
Never really understood why UTC ends when the 32nd bit flips. Time should "end" in 2106 not 2038. Over the next eighteen years we can declare time_t as unsigned. How hard can it be?
UTC is Universal Coordinated Time and has nothing to do with Linux or Unix and used to be called GMT, once upon a time. How did you arrive at that figure? Doesn't it depend on when 0 was? Actually I think it is already unsigned and it is not the 32nd bit flipping, but rolling over from 0xFFFF FFFF to 0x0000 0000 that will be the problem in 2038
 

402DF855

Joined Feb 9, 2013
271
From the ZD Net article:

"Linux and older versions of macOS, runs out of numbers and starts counting time with negative numbers. That's not good."

0x7FFFFFFF/3600/24/365.25+1970 = 2038.05
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
From the ZD Net article:

"Linux and older versions of macOS, runs out of numbers and starts counting time with negative numbers. That's not good."

0x7FFFFFFF/3600/24/365.25+1970 = 2038.05
OK, but you said it should end in 2016 -- that was the part I was unclear on
 
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