The Year 2038 Problem — Java Bug Hunt

Briefing

Inspired by the countdown every 32-bit Unix system is on: at 03:14:07 UTC on January 19, 2038, signed 32-bit epoch seconds wrap negative and the clock jumps to 1901.

Epoch.java schedules future timestamps. It still lives in 32 bits.

Bug report

BUG-2038 · Reported by: infra futures team

futureTimestamp(nowSeconds, deltaSeconds) must stay exact past 2^31. Scheduling 5 years from 2035 currently produces a NEGATIVE timestamp, and every TTL comparison after it inverts.

Logs

[sched] now=2051222400 (+5y) -> -2085744896

The code as shipped

Epoch.java (editable)

class Epoch {
    // Seconds since 1970 for a moment delta seconds in the future.
    static long futureTimestamp(long nowSeconds, long deltaSeconds) {
        int result = (int) (nowSeconds + deltaSeconds);
        return result;
    }
}