Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sun, 24 Aug 2014 00:26:40 +0200 | From | Pavel Machek <> | Subject | Re: (Resend) 2038 Kernel Summit Discussion Fodder |
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Hi!
> There was also some pre-discussion before the sessions started around > why we don't just change time_t to be unsigned. From the kernel's > point of view this would be mostly fine, since dates before 1970 are > not considered valid for any internal uses (with the exception of some > filesystem timestamps). However, the problem with this approach is > that userspace may want to handle dates prior to 1970, so this would > eliminate that possibility. And removing the sign could cause problems > with existing comparison logic. There is also the fact that having the > same time unit range on 32bit and 64bit systems avoids complicating > how timestamps are interpreted between architectures, where as having > it be unsigned on 32bit but signed on 64bit would likely cause > confusion. It is quite likely that using unsigned timestamps will be a > useful solution for cases where timestamps cannot be converted to > 64bits, but from the kernel perspective if we are going to change the > abi, we should probably go all the way to 64bits. There seemed to be > no disagreement here. > > For the rest of the session, I opened it up for further thoughts or > ideas. While there wasn't any new proposals, there was a question as > to if anyone will really be running 32bit hardware in 2038, which made > some folks point out that as systems get smaller there are likely to > be tiny embedded platforms using Linux. The point that these systems
I'm pretty sure people will run 32bit hardware in 2038... that is not even a question.
Today, there's good chance there's linux somewhere in your car. (Dashboard, entertainment system). People like to keep cars from 1910 working, and I suspect that is not going to change.
So yes, in 2038 people will be running 32bit linux.
Whether there will be people putting 32bit linux into new devices is a question, but I suspect answer is still yes. Pavel -- (english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek (cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html
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