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gnucash/doc/sgml/C/xacc-y2k.sgml

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<ARTICLE ID="XACC-Y2K">
<ARTHEADER>
<TITLE>GnuCash Y2K Readiness</TITLE>
</ARTHEADER>
<SECT1>
<TITLE> GnuCash Y2K Readiness</TITLE>
<PARA> </PARA>
<PARA>GnuCash versions 1.1.25 and later store all dates as seconds
and nanoseconds, where the seconds are stored in a 64-bit
signed integer. This should suffice to store dates into both
the distant past as well as the distant future, so long as they
fall not <EMPHASIS>too</EMPHASIS> many orders of magnitude outside
cosmologists' estimations of the age of the universe.
</PARA>
<PARA>The file format for version 1.1.25 and later stores dates in
the above-described fashion.
</PARA>
<PARA>Some internal routines use the <FUNCTION>time_t</FUNCTION> type to
express seconds. Note that on most OSes, this is a 32-bit
quantity, and is thus limited to the Unix epoch, roughly
December 1901 thru Jan 2038. It is reasonable to expect that
<FUNCTION>time_t</FUNCTION> will migrate to the use of 64 bit values by
that time.
</PARA>
<PARA>Backup and log files are time-stamped using the standard
Unix <FUNCTION>ctime()</FUNCTION> routine, which takes a <FUNCTION>time_t</FUNCTION>
argument. Thus, the backup and log mechanism may experience
trouble in 2038, assuming your present Unix continues to be in
service at that time without any remediation.
</PARA>
<PARA>Note that GnuCash also correctly recognizes February 29th,
2000 as a "leap day," another of the "critical Y2K dates."
</PARA>
<PARA>This is all highly suggestive that GnuCash should cope
reasonably well with the transition to the new millennium,
whether that take place in 2000 or in 2001...
</PARA>
<PARA>Y2K issues are described in more detail at <ULINK URL="http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/linuxy2k.html">Linux and Year
2000.</ULINK>
</PARA>
</SECT1>
</ARTICLE>