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From: fcrary@rintintin.Colorado.EDU (Frank Crary)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Year 2000 problem?
Date: 30 Apr 1997 01:22:00 GMT
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <5k66ro$r9l@lace.colorado.edu>
References: <3365F634.794BDF32@jnet.vi> <5k52ha$2nr@lace.colorado.edu> <01bc54d3$9d98ca00$6601a8c0@teds.portsoft.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: rintintin.colorado.edu
NNTP-Posting-User: fcrary
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:39969
In article <01bc54d3$9d98ca00$6601a8c0@teds.portsoft.com>,
Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@portsoft.com> wrote:
>> FreeBSD and other Unix platforms shouldn't have any serious problems
>> on 1 JAN 00. Some utilities may display, or even use, a two-digit
>> number for the year, but the operating system itself does not. The
>> time used internally by the operating system is seconds since 1 JAN 1970,
>> 00:00 (Universal time, I think.)
>Although, I think it's stored as a 32-bit integer, so somewheres around
>2032 I think we will get hosed.
Typically it's a 32-bit integer, but that's not a requirement of Unix
operating systems (the machines Unix was written on back in 1972 certainly
didn't use 32-bit integers...) Given how quickly technology is improving,
any one who is still using 32-bit bit registers in 2032 would deserve
what they get.
Frank Crary
CU Boulder