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to infinity and beyond

manatee
Level 6

why is it that "infinity" retention is only up to the year 2038? i would have thought it'd be the end of time.

3 REPLIES 3

Deeps
Level 6

The birthtime (backupid) and expiration time of an image is stored in unix Ctime in Netabckup . The infinity retention mapping to year 2038 is due to 'year 2038 problem' .

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

 

DeepS

mph999
Level 6
Employee Accredited

... also, we're not too sure when the 'end of time' actually is

;0)  

From Wiki

The latest time that can be represented in Unix's signed 32-bit integer time format is 03:14:07 UTC on Tuesday, 19 January 2038 (231-1 = 2,147,483,647 seconds after 1 January 1970). Times beyond that will wrap around and be stored internally as a negative number, which these systems will interpret as having occurred on 13 December 1901 rather than 19 January 2038. This is caused by integer overflow. The counter runs out of usable digit bits, flips the sign bit instead, and reports a maximally negative number (continuing to count up, toward zero). Resulting erroneous calculations on such systems are likely to cause problems for users and other relying parties.

 

I'll take the oppotunity to point out it's not actually our fault, though I am sure someone will, or has already, tried to pin it on us ...

The reason is also explained in the NetBackup Administrator's Guide Volume I. For the version 8.0 doc, see page 228.