
Ask HN: Any predictions on the impact of the 'Y38' bug (32bit EPOCH time issue)? - canada_dry
We&#x27;re around half way point between Y2K and the Jan. 19 2038 Unix EPOCH 32bit issue. Any predictions on whether it will have any impact at all?
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simonblack
Y38 is really a non-issue. It only involves using more than 32 bits in the
epoch-counter. (Strictly speaking, merely moving from 32 bits to 33 bits would
take us to 2106 or thereabouts.)

The easiest way to fix this for millions of years would be to switch from
using a 32-bit counter to using a 64-bit counter.

You can be sure than entities requiring to use dates later than 2038 today
(banks, insurance companies, etc, etc.) are doing this already, others who
don't need to do that yet probably won't bother doing that until they actually
need to.

Very little programming work is required. In many cases, it requires little
more than recompiling after updating a few definitions.

