Re: [bug-gawk] gawk with dates before 1970

[Aharon Robbins]

> Thanks for bringing this up, but your issue is only one part of the problem.
> We have two flaws in the current code:
>
> 1. We should check the return code from localtime/gmtime to make sure that it
> is not NULL.  Currently, if the time_t value is outside the range supported by
> the C library, we get back a NULL pointer that we then blindly pass to
> strftime, and that results in a crash.  The question then becomes whether we
> should issue a fatal error or return an empty string.  I'm not a big fan of
> fatal errors...

I will fix to return an empty string. Maybe adding a lint message.

> 2. There's a general question of how to handle the case where the
> floating-point timestamp argument cannot be converted to a time_t that
> preserves its value.  This goes beyond the signed/unsigned concern that
> Eli raised.

This is a general issue in awk/gawk.  At some point the user has to
know what s/he is doing, and I think this is one of those points.

Thanks

Arnold