The End of Time, 19 Years to Go
summary
Unix 32-bit seconds overflow on Jan 19 2038 forces a concrete migration: convert in-kernel interfaces to 64-bit seconds, add Ktime_t/time64_t changes, update hundreds of drivers and VFS layers, and replace or duplicate legacy syscalls. Work already lands as kernel patches (around ~1,000 kernel patches to drivers and helpers) and touches 50+ syscalls affected; file systems like ext3/xfs and NFS v3 still need work. Userspace plans include glibc and musl changes and a deploy strategy; testing often means setting the clock to 2039.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (11)
- 0:00Intro
- 1:38Why we care: 32-bit kernels
- 3:25Industrial product lifecycle
- 4:1532 bit user space
- 5:0232 bit interfaces
- 15:29Other driver interfaces: read()
- 18:45Virtual File System layer
- 26:47System calls: method
- 29:28Affected syscalls, need replacement
- 39:10Distro work needed
- 41:1632-bit distro needing rebuild
