From 7b2795afa3e85b4fa8efa675fd4bb77aa95f7066 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: brian Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 06:52:32 +0000 Subject: PR: Add analysis done by Christian Sane git-svn-id: https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/httpd/httpd/trunk@81633 13f79535-47bb-0310-9956-ffa450edef68 --- docs/manual/mod/mod_usertrack.html | 42 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 42 insertions(+) diff --git a/docs/manual/mod/mod_usertrack.html b/docs/manual/mod/mod_usertrack.html index 024e509ba6..ee4ba182c1 100644 --- a/docs/manual/mod/mod_usertrack.html +++ b/docs/manual/mod/mod_usertrack.html @@ -110,6 +110,48 @@ requests. This directive can be used to turn this behavior on or off on a per-server or per-directory basis. By default, compiling mod_usertrack will not activate cookies. +
+ +

2-digit or 4-digit dates for cookies?

+ +(the following is from message +<022701bda43d$9d32bbb0$1201a8c0@christian.office.sane.com> in +the new-httpd archives) + +

+ +

+From: "Christian Allen" <christian@sane.com>
+Subject: Re: Apache Y2K bug in mod_usertrack.c
+Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 11:41:56 -0400
+
+Did some work with cookies and dug up some info that might be useful.
+
+True, Netscape claims that the correct format NOW is four digit dates, and
+four digit dates do in fact work... for Netscape 4.x (Communicator), that
+is.  However, 3.x and below do NOT accept them.  It seems that Netscape
+originally had a 2-digit standard, and then with all of the Y2K hype and
+probably a few complaints, changed to a four digit date for Communicator.
+Fortunately, 4.x also understands the 2-digit format, and so the best way to
+ensure that your expiration date is legible to the client's browser is to
+use 2-digit dates.
+
+However, this does not limit expiration dates to the year 2000; if you use
+an expiration year of "13", for example, it is interpreted as 2013, NOT
+1913!  In fact, you can use an expiration year of up to "37", and it will be
+understood as "2037" by both MSIE and Netscape versions 3.x and up (not sure
+about versions previous to those).  Not sure why Netscape used that
+particular year as its cut-off point, but my guess is that it was in respect
+to UNIX's 2038 problem.  Netscape/MSIE 4.x seem to be able to understand
+2-digit years beyond that, at least until "50" for sure (I think they
+understand up until about "70", but not for sure).
+
+Summary:  Mozilla 3.x and up understands two digit dates up until "37"
+(2037).  Mozilla 4.x understands up until at least "50" (2050) in 2-digit
+form, but also understands 4-digit years, which can probably reach up until
+9999.  Your best bet for sending a long-life cookie is to send it for some
+time late in the year "37".
+
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