Re: plans for file related modules on Windows

[Paul Eggert]

On 05/09/2017 01:34 PM, Bruno Haible wrote:
> - windows-year2038 : define time_t as 64-bit (might involve renaming module 
> time to time-h)

Such a module could be useful on non-MS-Windows platforms too. The 
module could support functions like localtime even on 32-bit platforms 
that can't handle time stamps past 2038. (It'd have trouble with 
functions like 'stat', of course.) This would be useful on GNU/Linux 
x86, for example. It'd be a no-op on platforms like recent OpenBSD x86, 
which already uses 64-bit time_t. A similar point applies to some of the 
other modules you mentioned, e.g., windows-uid. So perhaps these modules 
should not have "windows-" in their names.


Simon Josefsson proposed something along these lines a decade ago:

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2007-03/msg00106.html

The project is somewhat more urgent now than it was back then.


Also please see plans in time_t area in the Linux kernel and in glibc, 
summarized here:

https://lwn.net/Articles/643234/
https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/Y2038ProofnessDesign