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POWhat should we do to prepare for 2038?
 

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  1. POWhat should we do to prepare for 2038?
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    <p>I would like to think that some of the software I'm writing today will be used in 30 years. But I am also aware that a lot of it is based upon the UNIX tradition of exposing time as the number of seconds since 1970.</p> <pre><code>#include &lt;stdio.h&gt; #include &lt;time.h&gt; #include &lt;limits.h&gt; void print(time_t rt) { struct tm * t = gmtime(&amp;rt); puts(asctime(t)); } int main() { print(0); print(time(0)); print(LONG_MAX); print(LONG_MAX+1); } </code></pre> <p>Execution results in:</p> <ul> <li>Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970</li> <li>Sat Aug 30 18:37:08 2008</li> <li>Tue Jan 19 03:14:07 <strong>2038</strong></li> <li>Fri Dec 13 20:45:52 <strong>1901</strong></li> </ul> <blockquote> <blockquote> <p>The functions ctime(), gmtime(), and localtime() all take as an argument a time value representing the time in seconds since the Epoch (00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970; see time(3) ).</p> </blockquote> </blockquote> <p>I wonder if there is anything proactive to do in this area as a programmer, or are we to trust that all software systems (aka Operating Systems) will some how be magically upgraded in the future?</p> <p><strong>Update</strong> It would seem that indeed 64-bit systems are safe from this:</p> <pre><code>import java.util.*; class TimeTest { public static void main(String[] args) { print(0); print(System.currentTimeMillis()); print(Long.MAX_VALUE); print(Long.MAX_VALUE + 1); } static void print(long l) { System.out.println(new Date(l)); } } </code></pre> <ul> <li>Wed Dec 31 16:00:00 PST 1969</li> <li>Sat Aug 30 12:02:40 PDT 2008</li> <li>Sat Aug 16 23:12:55 PST <strong>292278994</strong></li> <li>Sun Dec 02 08:47:04 PST <strong>292269055</strong></li> </ul> <p>But what about the year 292278994?</p>
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    1. USFrank Krueger
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    1. COYou would be happy if you were present to be held responsible for some accident by that year, wouldn't you?
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      1. USR. Martinho Fernandes
    2. CODon't worry about year 292278994. Most systems fail at year 2147483647.
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    3. COI think that you've convinced us - we need to move to 128 bit immediately!
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