[PATCH 3/3] login: Make user accounting database no-op

[Paul Eggert]

On 2024-08-07 12:06, Thorsten Kukuk wrote:
> How should that solve the Y2038 issue?
> I'm not aware of any application which interprets the int32 time value
> as unsigned value.

Coreutils and other Gnulib-based programs do, as of this Gnulib patch 
about based on a suggestion by Andreas about a year ago:

https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gnulib.git/commit/?id=0a7a71a4f24b4608662b4532bd17aef758f049fd


> And how do applications find out, if the value was written as int or as uint?

They assume the latter. Quoting from the patch:

> -      int tv_sec;			/* Seconds.  */
> +      /* Seconds.  Unsigned not signed, as glibc did not exist before 1970,
> +         and if the format is still in use after 2038 its timestamps
> +         will surely have the sign bit on.  This hack stops working
> +         at 2106-02-07 06:28:16 UTC.  */
> +      unsigned int tv_sec;


> For me this is not a solution for the Y2038, that issue still exists.

It does move the goalposts from 2038 to 2106.

I agree that it's not ideal, and that we should instead fix the API.