Summary of the DebConf 2038 BoF

I think this is roughly the plan yes (that is, introduce time64_t etc.), analogous to how large file support was handled with attendant macros (_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=) etc.

The problem is that there's a *lot* of stuff that embeds time_t somewhere (structs, ioctl's etc.). So it's a lot of work, for little immediate benefit. Particularly for workstation/server users who are already on 64-bit systems where time_t is 64-bit so this is a non-issue for them. The problem really only affects embedded where most likely a lot of 32-bit systems will be around by 2038.