[ntp:questions] Re: NTP, Unix and the 34-year itch (better read this)

Hal Murray hmurray at suespammers.org
Thu Jan 22 07:13:45 UTC 2004


>Almost all computers of today have some means, such as a time-of-year
>(TOY) chip, to set the system clock at power up or reboot surely within
>within 34 years, but some embedded systems do not. For embedded systems
>without a TOY chip and running an embedded Unix kernel, the initial time
>is usually the Unix base epoch 1 January 1970. Readers will quickly
>realize the time since then now in 2004 exceeds the 34-year limit. These
>systems have a problem unless something is done.

Another case to consider is the battery running down.  That happens
after a while if the box is not plugged in.

Another way to get a good starting epoch would be to use the 
build time of the kernel.

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