[Bug 1824688] Re: date+%-Y -d "- N years" errors when N > 111

[C de-Avillez]

I have ran a few tests on 16.04, 18.04, 18.10, and 19.04 (all X86_64):

16.04:

root at u1604:~# date +%-Y -d '- 2010 years'
9
root at u1604:~# date --version
date (GNU coreutils) 8.25
Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by David MacKenzie.


18.04:

root at bionic:~# date +%-Y -d '- 2010 years'
9
root at bionic:~# date --version
date (GNU coreutils) 8.28
Copyright (C) 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by David MacKenzie.

18.10:

root at u1810:~# date +%-Y -d '- 2010 years'                                                                                                                                                                                        
9
root at u1810:~# date --version
date (GNU coreutils) 8.28
Copyright (C) 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by David MacKenzie.

19.04:

cerdea at piatam:/data/buildd/coreutils$ date +%-Y -d '- 2010 years'
date: invalid date ‘- 2010 years’
1 cerdea at piatam:/data/buildd/coreutils$ date --version
date (GNU coreutils) 8.30
Copyright (C) 2018 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by David MacKenzie.

Interestingly, it is also failing on git head:

130 cerdea at piatam:/data/buildd/coreutils$ src/date +%-Y -d '- 2010 years'
src/date: invalid date ‘- 2010 years’
1 cerdea at piatam:/data/buildd/coreutils$ src/date --version
date (GNU coreutils) 8.31.12-6d78a
Copyright (C) 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by David MacKenzie.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1824688

Title:
  date+%-Y -d "- N years" errors when N > 111

Status in coreutils package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I have been using 'date +%-Y -d "- 2010 years" in a script for years
  but today after using the script after upgrading to disco it has
  failed.

  After some experimentation it succeeds with upto 111 years but fails
  from 112 onwards.

  Error given is:

  'date: invalid date '- 112 years'.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04
  Package: coreutils 8.30-1ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-11.12-generic 5.0.6
  Uname: Linux 5.0.0-11-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu27
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Sun Apr 14 10:59:36 2019
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-10-08 (553 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20170215.2)
  SourcePackage: coreutils
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to disco on 2019-04-13 (1 days ago)

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