[RFC 00/32] making inode time stamps y2038 ready

[H. Peter Anvin]

Typically they are using 64-bit signed seconds.

On May 31, 2014 11:22:37 AM PDT, Richard Cochran <richardcochran at gmail.com> wrote:
>On Sat, May 31, 2014 at 05:23:02PM +0200, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
>> 
>> It's an approximation:
>
>(Approximately never ;)
>
>> with 64-bit timestamps, you can represent close to 300 billion
>> years, which is way past the time that our planet can sustain
>> life of any form[1].
>
>Did you mean mean 64 bits worth of seconds?
>
>  2^64 / (3600*24*365) = 584,942,417,355
>
>That is more than 300 billion years, and still, it is not quite the
>same as "never".
>
>In any case, that term is not too helpful in the comparison table,
>IMHO. One could think that some sort of clever running count relative
>to the last mount time was implied.
>
>Thanks,
>Richard
>
>[1] You are forgetting the immortal robotic overlords.

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