Debian shifts to 64-bit time storage to head off Epochalypse

Patch early, patch often, they say — almost 13 years early in the case of Debian’s patch for a potentially crippling issue with the way Unix-like systems represent time.

Debian 13 “Trixie,” scheduled for August 9, marks the Linux distribution’s mitigation of the Y2K38 bug, also known as the “Unix Epochalypse,” via a shift in the operating system to storing time in 64-bit variables for all but the oldest of supported hardware.

The Unix Epochalypse is the whimsical name for what could become a big problem if vendors and users don’t update their systems.