Y2K38 bug? Debian switching to 64-bit time for everything (www.theregister.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/30920734

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[-] [email protected] 6 points 12 hours ago

Hmm, Debian and other long-term support distros are kind of in a tricky position with problems like these. On the one hand, they don't want to break things, so they'll often make changes like these relatively late. But on the other hand, someone might still run a current version of the distro in 2038, so they actually want to solve it as early as possible, too.

[-] [email protected] 32 points 23 hours ago

Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/607/

[-] [email protected] 8 points 20 hours ago

The actual transition happened ages ago - 2024 or so. A bunch of transitional packages in Testing and Sid had -t64 appended for a while.

[-] [email protected] 17 points 23 hours ago

But that's not a solution, it's just postponing the problem!!1!one

[-] [email protected] 8 points 18 hours ago

"it's just postponing the problem!!1!one" The thing of including a "one" to make the irony of your exclamation abundantly clear is a delightful bit of internet-ese. I always find it funny when I see it

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

For me the giveaway was 2^64 being 1.8*10^19 years from now.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Thanks! I find it nicer than including "/s" at the end :)

[-] [email protected] 10 points 22 hours ago

True, but only if the latest theories on Big Crunch being back on the table don't hold up. Debian ought to not only push out 64 bit time, but place "now" right in the middle to cover any discoveries of an older universe. Hell, they ought to do that and make it 128 bit, to cover anything.

Exponentials can be profound when you grasp them for that fleeting second.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago

'...(potentially setting time back to 1900)...'

From my understanding, unless I'm mistaken, wouldn't the 32 bit time reset back to 1970 after the overflow/rollover?

[-] [email protected] 21 points 23 hours ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

Timestamps that use signed int will go back to 1901 (-2,147,483,647)

[-] [email protected] 12 points 23 hours ago

Oh shit, I missed that part, I always thought it was an unsigned int.. 🤦‍♂️

Well today I learned 👍

[-] [email protected] 7 points 23 hours ago

you're wrong, but so was the article, so I guess that cancels out :D it's late 1901

[-] [email protected] 17 points 22 hours ago

There are 2 hard problems in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-1 errors.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 19 hours ago

That's just a really solid joke.

this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2025

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