Introduction and 64 bit time_t

[Philipp.Trommler@preh.de]

Hi!

First of all, I'd like to introduce myself: My name is Philipp
Trommler, I'm from Germany and my employer is Preh Car Connect GmbH.
Part of my job is working with newlib, especially when it comes to time
and clocks, which is why I'm writing this mail.

In our products we need to provide support for quite a long time, thus
the year 2038 problem is relevant for us right now. And from what I can
see in your online git frontend, newlib is still affected by this
problem.

I've searched your mailing list archive and stumbled upon two threads
that mention the problem. The first one [1] is quite up-to-date but
received no responses, the second one [2] got some productive feedback
but is nearly 8 years old. 

My impression is that you're in principle interested in having a fix
for the problem but you didn't have the resources to do it until now.
If this impression is right, I'd gladly provide a fix but I'll need
some advice from developers more experienced in newlib.

So here are my questions:

1. Are you interested in a fix for the problem? If yes, what are the
   steps that are necessary from your point of view? What are your
   preferences for a possible implementation?

2. Sadly I'm unable to check out your latest code locally, as cloning
   the git repository via HTTP (the git protocol is no option in our
   company's network, sorry) fails with some "Unable to get pack
   index..." and "Unable to get pack file..." errors. Is this just me
   or is something wrong with your git server?

Regards
Philipp


[1] https://sourceware.org/ml/newlib/2016/msg01061.html
[2] https://sourceware.org/ml/newlib/2009/msg00911.html