FW: Definition of time_t changed from signed to unsigned...

Robert Elz kre at munnari.OZ.AU
Mon Jul 12 21:43:06 UTC 2004


    Date:        Mon, 12 Jul 2004 09:46:06 -0400
    From:        "Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI)" <olsona at dc37a.nci.nih.gov>
    Message-ID:  <75DDD376F2B6B546B722398AC161106C740253 at nihexchange2.nih.gov>

  | I am in the process of upgrading the kernel version on a platform that I
  | work on. I noticed that the time_t definition has been changed in the newer
  | version of the OS. It used to be a simple "long". But it is now an "unsigned
  | long". Basically it changed from a signed to an unsigned definition.

Which OS is that?

I made a change like that in Berkeley Unix in about 1980 (or something --
before 4.2BSD I think, maybe between 4.2 & 4.3, and way before the ado
timezone library existed).

It broke so much that the people at Berkeley changed it back after about
2 weeks I think.   It has remained a signed type ever since...

Whoever, or whatever, changed it to unsigned most likely made a big mistake.

kre




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