GNU C Library Lands Year 2038 Handling For Legacy ABIs

[phoronix]

Phoronix: GNU C Library Lands Year 2038 Handling For Legacy ABIs

The GNU C Library (Glibc) saw another batch of Year 2038 "Y2038" preparations on Tuesday for the Unix timestamp for when the time since 1 January 1970 can no longer be stored in a signed 32-bit integer...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Glibc-More-Y2038-Work

[krzyzowiec]

The more I study time in computing, the more I realize it’s the trickiest thing to deal with, even worse than naming things.

[oleid]

[...] but particularly on the embedded front it remains to be seen how many systems/hardware will be updated by the vendor to the mitigate the issue.

I yet have to find an embedded product with an 18 year life cycle. But clearly, I could imagine there is some infrastructure stuff (power plant?) that could be affected.

[oiaohm]

I yet have to find an embedded product with an 18 year life cycle. But clearly, I could imagine there is some infrastructure stuff (power plant?) that could be affected.

https://www.cip-project.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2018/10/CIP_Whitepaper_10.19.18.pdf

Civil Infrastructure has a life cycle from 10 to 60 years. Power plants are 20-60 year things so 18 year life cycle is getting a little short for them. Traffic light control systems the controllers have roughly 15 year life span that could go out to 25 years if lucky. Then there are items like elevators some of those are running 100year old + controllers so new ones of those can exceed the 18 year life cycle very simply.

Most of these forms of embedded products that have a life cycle exceeding 18 years are ones that if they malfunction can kill people so kind of serous to fix this stuff early.

[Skum]

I yet have to find an embedded product with an 18 year life cycle. But clearly, I could imagine there is some infrastructure stuff (power plant?) that could be affected.

Within the automation industry, where embedded Linux is quite common, 18 year life cycle is not long. Machines often run for decades.

[oiaohm]

Within the automation industry, where embedded Linux is quite common, 18 year life cycle is not long. Machines often run for decades.

This is also another case where if their controller goes stupid the result could be dead people. The stuff exceeding 18 years is mostly the more dangerous stuff.

[oleid]

Traffic light control systems the controllers have roughly 15 year life span that could go out to 25 years if lucky. Then there are items like elevators some of those are running 100year old + controllers so new ones of those can exceed the 18 year life cycle very simply.

This is a use case for a micro controller or a bare-metal system, I assumed. Do they really run embedded linux?

[skeevy420]

This is a use case for a micro controller or a bare-metal system, I assumed. Do they really run embedded linux?

NY Subways used to run on OS/2. That started in 1993 and is just now being phased out.

That just goes to show that the SLTS kernel and an SLTS distribution isn't a bad idea. And we thought Debian was old

[Skum]

This is a use case for a micro controller or a bare-metal system, I assumed. Do they really run embedded linux?

You wouldn't believe how much stuff in the end runs some embedded Linux. All kinds of equipment (SD cards with WIFI). Microcontroller/bare-metal systems usually require a deeper knowledge of the actual hardware, and instead the manufacturers buy PLCs of whatever sort, which in many cases end up running some Linux under the hood (or of course some RTOS). Just the ease of having a full fledged network stack, is usually a good reason to use Linux.

[oiaohm]

This is a use case for a micro controller or a bare-metal system, I assumed. Do they really run embedded linux?

https://www.elfin.de/en/product/lcl-01-linux-controller-elevators

http://www.zeetraffic.com/traffic-light-controllers/centralized-coordinated-traffic-light-co.html

Yes you do fine elevators with Linux and traffic lights controllers with Linux do exist. Do note 32 bit micro-controller running Linux the current builds here.

Of course not elevators and traffic lights use Linux but quite a few do.

Elevators the core is normally bare metal logic but the remote control system is Linux based. Just think about the fun if that elevators remote control computer goes stupid due to date issue so that elevator takes you to the top floor and refuses to go anywhere else.

Traffic lights system depend on the design some of them it is possible if the Linux OS screws up to result all green lights in all directions that is not very safe because some of those are fully linux embedded controlled..

Please note this is only the tip of a very big list of hardware. The usage concept of internet of things is a lot bigger than what most people think and can be a lot more dangerous.

Yes full blown network stack is absolutely common in these things. So running traffic lights with a remote webpage for configuration and alteration of the system is not unheard of same with elevator systems.