Thread: What is year 2038 bug?

Hi all
The Topic is What is "YEAR 2038 BUG"?
Answer of this question is following

A> That Is Me (My Id)

B> It is similar to Y2k problem.It will occur just a second after
Tue 19 jan 03:14:07 2038.This will effect the system which use POSIX time system(Time system used in UNIX).

WHY POSIX: It actually represent the time and date in number of seconds since 1 january 1970.so the problem is it uses 32 bit signed integer (that the max capablity which 32 bit microprocessor can handle) for repesentation of time and date.The max combination can occur is 2 to the power 31 which is equal to 2147483647. SO this means that at tue 19 jan 03:14:07 2038 it will reperesent it as 2147483647 and just a second after it,it will be -2147483648 which changes date to Fri 13 Dec 20:45:52 1901. So some also call it as 13th friday bug.

Here a programme which I found in a site for this problem

Code:

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <time.h>

int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
    time_t t;
    t = (time_t) 1000000000;
    printf ("%d, %s", (int) t, asctime (gmtime (&t)));
    t = (time_t) (0x7FFFFFFF);
    printf ("%d, %s", (int) t, asctime (gmtime (&t)));
    t++;
    printf ("%d, %s", (int) t, asctime (gmtime (&t)));
    return 0;
}

output

Code:

1000000000, Sun Sep  9 01:46:40 2001
2147483647, Tue Jan 19 03:14:07 2038
-2147483648, Fri Dec 13 20:45:52 1901

and my personal experincewhich i have encountered this problem is

Code:

1> Change your date to just a second after the critical time
2> Now Run Some Applicatins Like I have Tried yahoo messenger
3> Look what happned.It will not work.

Note : I have tried this thing on Win98.

for more information visit;-}
http://www.2038bug.com/index.html -from where i get code
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2038_bug -online encyclopedia
http://www.johntitor.com/ -The man from future

Nice thinking, year2038bug, but it seems like it was a waste of time.
Did you sign up here just to post that?

Not singed up here for this post

Just want to get you all aware of current problems

Originally Posted by ober

Current? This won't happen for another 23 years!? Do you have any idea what has happened in the past 23? This will be as big of a problem as the Y2K thing was. (read: nothing will happen)

The reason Y2K bugs did nothing was because everyone spent Trillions$$ fixing the problems before 2000 came around.

I recall vividely saying in 1970 that the Y2K bugs were unimportant because nobody would be using our current software by then. WRONG! There were lots of people still using 30-year old programs by year 2000.

So, when you write commercial programs today you need to be aware of the problems that might occur 30 years or more in the future because you may have to fix your own bugs like I did.

wouldnt be the first time,

remember when china invaded the US, didnt
think so.