---
name: "Time::y2038"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "libtime-y2038-perl"
version: "20100403-7+b4"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Time::y2038"
---

# Time::y2038(3pm)

Versions of Perl's time functions which work beyond 2038

## NAME

Time::y2038 - Versions of Perl's time functions which work beyond 2038

## SYNOPSIS

```
    use Time::y2038;
    print scalar gmtime 2**52;  # Sat Dec  6 03:48:16 142715360
```

## DESCRIPTION

On many computers, Perl's time functions will not work past the year 2038.  This is a design fault in the underlying C libraries Perl uses. Time::y2038 provides replacements for those functions which will work accurately +/1 142 million years.

This only imports the functions into your namespace.  To replace it everywhere, see Time::y2038::Everywhere.

Replaces the following functions:

***gmtime()***

See "gmtime" in perlfunc for details.

***localtime()***

See "localtime" in perlfunc for details.

***timegm()***

```
    my $time = timegm($sec, $min, $hour, $month_day, $month, $year);
```

The inverse of `gmtime()`, takes a date and returns the coorsponding `$time` (number of seconds since Midnight, January 1st, 1970 GMT).  All values are the same as `gmtime()` so `$month` is 0..11 (January is 0) and the `$year` is years since 1900 (2008 is 108).

```
    # June 4, 1906 03:02:01 GMT
    my $time = timegm(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6);
```

**timegm()** can take two additional arguments which are always ignored. This lets you feed the results from **gmtime()** back into **timegm()** without having to strip the arguments off.

The following is always true:

```
    timegm(gmtime($time)) == $time;
```

***timelocal()***

```
    my $time = timelocal($sec, $min, $hour, $mday, $month, $year);
    my $time = timelocal($sec, $min, $hour, $mday, $month, $year, $wday, $yday, $isdst);
```

Like `timegm()`, but interprets the date in the current time zone.

`timelocal()` will normally figure out if daylight savings time is in effect, but if `$isdst` is given this will override that check.  This is mostly useful to resolve ambiguous times around "fall back" when the hour between 1am and 2am occurs twice.

```
    # Sun Nov  4 00:59:59 2007
    print timelocal(59, 59, 0, 4, 10, 107);  # 1194163199
    # Sun Nov  4 01:00:00 2007 DST, one second later
    print timelocal(0, 0, 1, 4, 10, 107, undef, undef, 1);  # 1194163200
    # Sun Nov  4 01:00:00 2007 no DST, one hour later
    print timelocal(0, 0, 1, 4, 10, 107, undef, undef, 0);  # 1194166800
```

`$wday` and `$yday` are ignored.  They are only there for compatibility with the return value of `localtime()`.

## LIMITATIONS

The safe range of times is +/ 2\*\*52 (about 142 million years).

Although the underlying time library can handle times from -2\*\*63 to 2\*\*63-1 (about +/- 292 billion years) Perl uses floating point numbers internally and so accuracy degrates after 2\*\*52.

## BUGS & FEEDBACK

See *http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=Time-y2038* to report and view bugs.

If you like the module, please drop the author an email.

The latest version of this module can be found at *http://y2038.googlecode.com/* and the repository is at *http://y2038.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/* in *perl/Time-y2038*.  You have to check out the whole repository because there are symlinks.

## AUTHOR

Michael G Schwern \<schwern@pobox.com\>

## LICENSE & COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2008-2010 Michael G Schwern

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See *http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html*

## SEE ALSO

Time::y2038::Everywhere overrides **localtime()** and **gmtime()** across the whole program.

The y2038 project at *http://y2038.googlecode.com/*

\<http://xkcd.com/376/\>