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Date:      Mon, 06 Jan 1997 20:51:56 +1100
From:      Giles Lean <giles@nemeton.com.au>
To:        "Sean Batson (Sunbeach)" <seanb012@sunbeach.net>
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Year 2000 time change(Format support) 
Message-ID:  <199701060951.UAA01332@nemeton.com.au>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.95.970105154311.2226B-100000@bsdi.net> 

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[moved to -questions from -hackers]

On Sun, 5 Jan 1997 15:45:45 -0400 (AST)  "Sean Batson (Sunbeach)" wrote:

> Is FreeBSD ready for the year 2000 time change and 
> what are the effects if the support for this format
> isn't implemented asap with the OS?

The operating system proper (time structures, filesytem dates, etc) is
OK.  What utilities assume '19' or sort on two digit date fields is
anyone's guess.

I would not expect to see problems of a serious nature (crashes,
hangs, filesystem corruption) but do expect to see a few display
oddities.

As an example, the GNU gnats utility 'query-pr' (which isn't part of
FreeBSD) has a two digit year format when used in its '--sql' mode.
(This is despite the PRs maintaining four digits internally.)

Now while query-pr won't break, pretty much anything using its '--sql'
export format and sorting it in the C locale won't sort '00' higher
than '99'.

The "solution" to the year 2000 problem is analysis of critical
applications, testing testing and more testing, and having a pool of
dollars and trained staff to *quickly* fix the problems as they are
discovered.

Regards,

Giles





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