Re: Upcoming time boundary events

On 2025-05-22, Stephen Hoffman <seaohveh@hoffmanlabs.invalid> wrote:

On 2025-05-19 17:18:24 +0000, Simon Clubley said:
>

I realised that today is exactly 28 years since the 10,000 day issue in
VMS. I am starting to feel old. :-(
 
On a more serious note, I wonder what upcoming time boundaries we are
about to hit.
 
The obvious one is 2038, but I also wonder how many had 2030 as their
Y2K pivot point.
 
Any others you know of (both VMS and non-VMS) ?
 
Simon.

>
>
Probably-partial list of bad dates for OpenVMS:
>
17-Nov-1858 00:00 UTC, OpenVMS base date
1-Jan-1970 00:00:00.00 UTC, epoch
19-May-1997, the LIBRTL 10K Day limit that derailed DECwindows
1-Jan-2000 Local, Y2K, various bugs and limits found and fixed in OpenVMS
2003 Local (details of this one escape me)

I don't remember that one. Does anyone have any details ?

31-Dec-2028, HPE root certificate expires, leading to PCSI and
VMSINSTAL errors at install

Can the certificates be ignored using a suitable qualifier ?

7-Feb-2036 06:28:16 UTC NTP overflow

Didn't know about that one either.

The details are vague since it's been several years since I looked at
DECnet Phase IV, but there's a signed integer delta date field somewhere
in DECnet Phase IV (from a base date offset) that overflowed, at least
if you followed the spec, in 2021 (IIRC). I do remember that VMS treated
it as an unsigned integer, hence VMS wasn't affected.

I _think_ it was in EVL, but I can't be sure now.

BTW, I still think unsigned integers should be the default and you
should have to ask for a signed integer if you actually need one.

19-Jan-2038 03:14:07 UTC, signed 32-bit time_t overflow
20-Nov-2038 23:59:37 UTC third GPS rollover.
2057 Local, OpenVMS pivot date (and DEC Centennial)
7-Feb-2106 06:28:15 UTC unsigned 32-bit time_t overflow
1-Jan-10000 00:00:00.00 Local, four digit year overflows
31-Jul-31086 02:48:05.47 UTC, end of the OpenVMS epoch
>
>
DEC ended the Y2K evaluation range prior to 2038, though at least 2038
bug was identified and resolved within OpenVMS.
>
VSI has their own signing certificate, and that'll be another bad date
to add to this list.
>

Does anyone know the expiry date for this one ?

Simon.

--
Simon Clubley, clubley@remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.