1Year 2038 considerations for uses of krb5_timestamp 2=================================================== 3 4POSIX time values, which measure the number of seconds since January 1 51970, will exceed the maximum value representable in a signed 32-bit 6integer in January 2038. This documentation describes considerations 7for consumers of the MIT krb5 libraries. 8 9Applications or libraries which use libkrb5 and consume the timestamps 10included in credentials or other structures make use of the 11:c:type:`krb5_timestamp` type. For historical reasons, krb5_timestamp 12is a signed 32-bit integer, even on platforms where a larger type is 13natively used to represent time values. To behave properly for time 14values after January 2038, calling code should cast krb5_timestamp 15values to uint32_t, and then to time_t:: 16 17 (time_t)(uint32_t)timestamp 18 19Used in this way, krb5_timestamp values can represent time values up 20until February 2106, provided that the platform uses a 64-bit or 21larger time_t type. This usage will also remain safe if a later 22version of MIT krb5 changes krb5_timestamp to an unsigned 32-bit 23integer. 24 25The GSSAPI only uses representations of time intervals, not absolute 26times. Callers of the GSSAPI should require no changes to behave 27correctly after January 2038, provided that they use MIT krb5 release 281.16 or later. 29