Re: [RFC 06/32] isofs: fix timestamps beyond 2027

H. Peter Anvin
2014-05-31T08:48:05Z

On 05/31/2014 12:59 AM, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> On Fri, May 30, 2014 at 10:01 PM, Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de> wrote:
>> isofs uses a 'char' variable to load the number of years since
>> 1900 for an inode timestamp. On architectures that use a signed
>> char type by default, this results in an invalid date for
>> anything beyond 2027.
>>
>> This adds a cast to 'u8' for the year number, which should extend
>> the shelf life of the file system until 2155.
>
> Oops, the CD archive of my scanned Napoleon manuscripts no longer has the
> right file date? ;-)
>
> Are there any practical uses of representating dates between 1772 and 1900
> on CD/DVD?
>

Unlikely, furthermore, the spec explicitly states that the number is
unsigned (ref: ECMA-119, 2nd ed, 9.1.5 which specifies that the numbers
are "recorded according to 7.1.1"; 7.1.1 specifies "8-bit unsigned
numerical values").

-hpa