[Year 2038 Bug] Questions

[Paul Sheer]

>
> 1. Doesn't putting invalid values into variables (e.g. UNIX time being
> higher than INT_MAX) cause overflows/crashes rather than minimal Y2K
> "wrapping around" issues (or letters showing up in the case of Windows
> 3.1) you mention on the site?

each application is different. One application might just display the wrong
time, another may do a "core dump" (= "Fatal Exception" on windows),
another may just hang up and not respond. It all depends on the code
the programmer has written.

Unix is composed of hundreds of individual programs and libraries
some interdependent some not, some safe, some not.

Most will work fine once the underlying operating system has been
corrected.

>
> 3. What's the highest UNIX time value/date for 64-bit systems/OSes?

2^(64-1) / (365.25 * 24 * 60 * 60) = 300 billion years

-paul