🚀 go-pugleaf

[cross--posted to c.s.y2k in order to solicit criticism.  --Z]

[c.s.y2k'ers:  READ THE THRAD in c.o.l.d.s. before 
following-up!  --Z]


In article <541zwjlq6y.fsf@rrdjazz.nist.gov>,
Przemek Klosowski  <przemek@rrdjazz.nist.gov> wrote:
>
>Someone asked me about Y2K and Linux, and I wrote the enclosed 
>answer. Now they want to actually use it in some internal document,
>so I thought I'd ask around for people to review it for accuracy.
>
>
>
>I understand that Linux kernel doesn't have any year 2000 issues
>(dates are kept as 32-bit integers denoting the number of seconds
>since 1970, so this will last without any problems until 2^31 seconds
>will pass on 03:14:08 GMT, Tue Jan 19, 2038, even for software that
>incorrectly interprets the date as signed integer.  For correctly
>written software it will be yr. 2106 when the date will overflow.
>
>Applications rarely use the 2-digit format; I personally don't know of
>any that does that.
>
>The only place where you might run into trouble is because computer
>hardware clock maintains the 2-digit date, so that loading the system
>clock on bootup from the hardware clock would result in a 1900 date in
>year 2000. This is easy to fix; simply, getting years 00 to 90 from the
>stupid hardware clock will result in adding 2000, not 1900, to the
>year, and we are good for 90 more years. Since Linux didn't exist before
>1990, it is not going to cause problems :^)
>
>
>-- 
>			przemek klosowski <przemek@nist.gov>  (301) 975-6249
>			NIST Center for Neutron Research (bldg. 235), E111 
>			National Institute of Standards and Technology
>			Gaithersburg, MD 20899,      USA
>                        .. and for spam extractors, FCC Commisioners' email is: 
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