Linux 5.4 new y2k38 message on filesystem mount

[comet--berkeley]

I noticed this message in a recent Linux 5.4 system log after mounting an ext2 file system:

ext2 filesystem being mounted at / supports timestamps until 2038 (0x7fffffff)

The message warns that ext2 filesystems have traditional Unix 32-bit timestamps and will not save create/modify/access timestamps newer than 19 Jan 2038.

Something like this could also be in BSD kernels to warn about ufs1 file systems.
Ufs2 file sytems are ok.

[victorvas]

What about OpenBSD's FFS, did they fix 2038 issue in it?

[jggimi]

Yes, back in 2014.

[comet--berkeley]

Originally Posted by victorvas

What about OpenBSD's FFS, did they fix 2038 issue in it?

No, FFS (ufs) is not fixed. FFS2 (ufs2) is fixed but not FFS...

Linux now reports OpenBSD FFS (ufs) systems just like ext2 systems:

ufs filesystem being mounted at /obsd supports timestamps until 2038 (0x7fffffff)

(To get this message on Linux the disk needs to be mounted R/W which requires
the kernel to contain CONFIG_UFS_FS_WRITE=y )

Here is a OpenBSD script to show the issue with timestamps:

#! /bin/sh
set -x
touch -t 203801181234 y2k38-test1
ls -lT                y2k38-test1
touch -t 203901201234 y2k38-test2
ls -lT                y2k38-test2

[jggimi]

My apologies, the fix in 2014 was to time_t and its ABIs, not to the filesystem. Thank you comet--berkeley.