<sect1>
<title>Y2K Statement</title>

<para>
<note>
<title>Author</title>

<para>
Written by 
<ulink url="mailto:lockhart@alumni.caltech.edu">Thomas Lockhart</ulink>
on 1998-10-22.
</note>

<para>
The <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> Global Development Team provides
the <productname>Postgres</productname> software code tree as a public service,
without warranty and without liability for it's behavior or performance.
However, at the time of writing:

<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
The author of this statement, a volunteer on the <productname>Postgres</productname>
 support team since November, 1996, is not aware of 
any problems in the <productname>Postgres</productname> code base related
to time transitions around Jan 1, 2000 (Y2K).

<listitem>
<para>
The author of this statement is not aware of any reports of Y2K problems 
uncovered in regression testing
or in other field use of recent or current versions
of <productname>Postgres</productname>. We might have expected
to hear about problems if they existed, given the installed base and
the active participation of users on the support mailing lists.

<listitem>
<para>
To the best of the author's knowledge, the
assumptions Postgres makes about dates specified with a two-digit year
are documented in the current 
<ulink url="http://www.postgresql.org/docs/user/datatype.htm">User's Guide</ulink>
 in the chapter on data types.
For two-digit years, the significant transition year is 1970, not 2000;
i.e. <quote>70-01-01</quote> is interpreted as <quote>1970-01-01</quote>,
whereas <quote>69-01-01</quote> is interpreted as <quote>2069-01-01</quote>.

<listitem>
<para>
Any Y2K problems in the underlying OS related to obtaining "the
current time" may propagate into apparent Y2K problems in
<productname>Postgres</productname>.

</itemizedlist>

<para>
Refer to 
<ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/software/year2000.html">The Gnu Project</ulink>
and
<ulink url="http://language.perl.com/news/y2k.html">The Perl Institute</ulink>
for further discussion of Y2K issues, particularly
 as it relates to open source, no fee software.

</sect1>