linux-kernel - Re: RFD: x32 ABI system call numbers

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Date:	Wed, 31 Aug 2011 21:49:41 +0200
From:	Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@...ux-m68k.org>
To:	Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>
Cc:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"H.J. Lu" <hjl.tools@...il.com>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Richard Kuo <rkuo@...eaurora.org>,
	Mark Salter <msalter@...hat.com>,
	Jonas Bonn <jonas@...thpole.se>,
	Tobias Klauser <tklauser@...tanz.ch>
Subject: Re: RFD: x32 ABI system call numbers

On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 21:18, Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de> wrote:
> On Wednesday 31 August 2011 09:48:35 Linus Torvalds wrote:
>> On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 9:39 AM, Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de> wrote:
>> >
>> > Well, we could chicken out and just use unsigned int for time_t on new
>> > 32 bit ABIs, which would buy us time until ~2106 before we need to
>> > convert everything to 64 bit...
>>
>> You do realize that there are probably quite a lot of programs that
>> depend on signed time_t because they really do care about dates before
>> 1970?
>
> Yes, it already occurred to me after I had written the above that we
> really want it to be signed, especially to allow a meaningful conversion
> at least one-way between 32 and 64 bit time_t values.

If you care about dates before 1970, you're using time_t not to store
the current
time +/- some epsilon, for a "reasonable small epsilon", but to store real
dates. That was never a good idea. During the early days of UNIX, when the 1970
base was chosen, lots of people born before 1902 were still alive...

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

                        Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@...ux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
                                -- Linus Torvalds
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