On Tue, Feb 28, 2017 at 10:55:49AM -0800, Junio C Hamano wrote: > > Glibc will get a way to enable 64-bit time_t on 32-bit platforms > > eventually > > (https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/Y2038ProofnessDesign). Can > > platforms that won't provide a 64-bit time_t by 2038 be actually used > > at that point? How would we get time information on them? How would > > a custom timestamp_t help us? > > That's a sensible "wait, let's step back a bit". I take it that you > are saying "time_t is just fine", and I am inclined to agree. > > Right now, they may be able to have future timestamps ranging to > year 2100 and switching to time_t would limit their ability to > express future time to 2038 but they would be able to express > timestamp in the past to cover most of 20th century. Given that > these 32-bit time_t software platforms will die off before year 2038 > (either by underlying hardware getting obsolete, or software updated > to handle 64-bit time_t), the (temporary) loss of 2038-2100 range > would not be too big a deal to warrant additional complexity. For what it's worth, I'm on board with just using time_t if it reduces the overall complexity. I agree that the "loss" of far-future timestamp handling is unlikely to matter between now and 2038, and those systems will have to figure out their time_t problems by then. By actually using time_t we get to piggy-back on their solution. -Peff