Re: [Bug-tar] Year-2242 bug in GNU tar 1.15.1 (also, year-1969 bug)

[Joerg Schilling]

Paul Eggert <address@hidden> wrote:

> Here's a problem I encountered when stress testing GNU tar 1.15.1
> on Solaris 8 (compiled with gcc -m64, using GCC 4.0.0):
>
>    $ touch -d @-1 early
>    $ touch -d @8589934592 late
>    $ TZ=UTC0 ls -l --full-time early late
>    -rw-rw-r--  1 eggert faculty 0 1969-12-31 23:59:59.000000000 +0000 early
>    -rw-rw-r--  1 eggert faculty 0 2242-03-16 12:56:32.000000000 +0000 late
>    $ tar -cf tar early late
>    $ TZ=UTC0 tar -tvf tar
>    -rw-rw-r-- eggert/faculty    0 1969-12-31 23:59:59 early
>    -rw-rw-r-- eggert/faculty    0 2242-03-16 12:56:32 late
>    $ tar -H posix -cf tar early late
>    tar: value -1 out of time_t range 0..8589934591
>    tar: value 8589934592 out of time_t range 0..8589934591
>    tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

The POSIX pax format allows any number of digits for time_t and
I would asume that negative time stamps are also possible.

> Unless I'm missing something, the error messages at the end seem
> incorrect.  POSIX 1003.1-2001 allows for time stamps that exceed the
> 33-bit unsigned-int limit of traditional 'tar'.

Could you tell me where you believe to read that POSIX.1-1990 litits
the time stamp to unsigned int? Wouldn't it be possible that
33 bit two's complement may also meet the requirements?

Jörg

-- 
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