Legacy Systems Foundation

The Legacy Systems Foundation is leading the way in safeguarding digital infrastructure for the post-2038 era. On Tuesday, 19 January 2038, 03:14:07 UTC Unix Timestamps stored in 32bit will come to an end.

Through the EPOCH+ 2038 safe™ standard, we define the benchmarks every organisation needs to future-proof legacy systems, prevent time-based failures, and maintain uninterrupted operations.

Join the movement to adopt the definitive global framework for resilience, compliance, and long-term system reliability.

Countdown To The
19 January 2038
Epoch Disaster

Count down to the 2038 Digital Epochalypse

Epochalypse countdown

...

Signed 32-bit Unix time has already consumed of its available range.

On this date, the binary clock runs out of room, time itself overflows.

01111111 11111111 11111111 11111111

Time overflows and becomes

10000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

This date lies not ahead but more than 100 years behind us, resetting time to 1901.

13th December 1901, 20:45:52

Just like a car odometer rolling over, the signed 32-bit Unix time counter doesn’t advance into the future when it overflows instead. It snaps violently back more than a century into the past. At the very moment systems expect to cross into 2038, the counter resets to 13 December 1901, 20:45:52, dragging critical software and infrastructure with it.

We Equip Developers and Businesses for the Post-2038

The Legacy Systems Foundation delivers tools, guidance, and comprehensive documentation to help organisations modernise their code and systems. Our EPOCH+ 2038 safe™ resources ensure developers can identify legacy issues, implement fixes, and validate that their applications remain resilient well beyond 2038.

With step-by-step guides, practical checklists, and ready-to-use frameworks, businesses can bring their systems up to standard without disrupting operations. EPOCH+ 2038 safe™ isn’t just a guideline it’s a hands-on toolkit to future-proof your infrastructure and ensure long-term reliability.

EPOCH+ 2083 Safe

Open Source

UK Industry Standard

Supporting Businesses globally

The Legacy Systems Foundation GitHub Hub

At the heart of the movement is our curated GitHub repository, constantly updated with everything needed to audit, plan, and execute Year 2038 remediation.

The Legacy Systems Resilience Foundation provides practical tools, guides, and documentation to help organizations bring their systems up to EPOCH+ 2038 safe™ standard. Developers and business teams can identify vulnerable code, audit legacy processes, and implement fixes that ensure reliability well beyond 2038.

From pre-built business case templates to automated code scanners, audit checklists, training modules, migration patterns, and test suites, the EPOCH+ 2038 safe™ toolkit is designed to be immediately actionable. These resources save time, reduce risk, and provide a clear roadmap for future-proofing your infrastructure.

With ongoing updates and community contributions, the repository evolves alongside new discoveries, patches, and best practices. By engaging with the Hub, organisations not only remediate current vulnerabilities but also gain insight into future-proofing strategies that will keep their systems resilient for decades.

GitHub Opensource Resources

At the heart of the Legacy Systems Foundation is our GitHub repository, a curated library of tools, guides, and scripts that help developers audit and remediate legacy systems.

Code & Library Scanners

Automated scripts and libraries to identify vulnerable code paths, outdated time functions, and risky data types, making it easier to bring your systems up to EPOCH+ standards.

Audit Tools & Training

Comprehensive checklists, audit frameworks, and developer-friendly tutorials designed to guide teams through compliance and best practices for resilient infrastructure.

Migration Patterns & Test Suites

Sample implementations & test suites for safe date-time migration across languages, ensuring applications remain reliable beyond 2038.

We’re Leading the Legacy Time Resilience Movement

The Legacy Systems Foundation has helped developers and organisations identify, audit, and remediate legacy systems to prevent the Year 2038 problem. Our tools, documentation, and community-driven resources empower teams to future-proof their infrastructure efficiently and reliably.

Comprehensive GitHub resources for code scanning and auditing

Developer-friendly tutorials and training modules

Migration patterns and test suites for safe date-time handling

10000

Days until Jan 18, 2038

The GitHub Hub is the central repository for all EPOCH+ 2038 safe™ resources, including audit tools, migration guides, test suites, and documentation to help organizations future-proof legacy systems.

Developers and business teams can download scripts, templates, and checklists from the Hub. These resources can be applied to audit code, fix legacy time handling, and ensure systems remain compliant well beyond 2038.

While some resources are developer-focused, the Hub also includes business templates, guides, and step-by-step instructions so that both technical and non-technical teams can participate in 2038 remediation.

Many scripts and test suites are language-specific, but we provide migration patterns and guidelines for multiple languages, including C, C++, Python, PHP, and more. If we are missing your language, please contribute and add extra resources.

Yes! All resources, tools, certifications and guides provided by the Legacy Systems Foundation are completely free for open source developers. You can download, use, and contribute without any cost.

The Hub is continuously maintained. Updates are made whenever new tools, patches, or guides are available, and contributors are encouraged to participate to keep the repository current.

Yes. The LSF Slack channels, GitHub issues, and mailing lists provide a space to connect with engineers, compliance officers, and other organisations working on 2038 readiness.

Start by exploring the GitHub Hub, downloading the relevant tools, and following our step-by-step guides. Begin auditing your systems, applying migration patterns, and contributing back to the community as you progress.

Open Source Tools

The Legacy Systems Foundation GitHub Hub provides a curated collection of open-source tools to help organisations audit, remediate, and future-proof legacy systems for the Year 2038 by ensuring they are EPOCH+ 2038 safe™.

Vist our Github

The future of computing depends on solving the problems we built in the past.

Mike C. Dodd

Author of 2038 Digital Epochalypse
& Founder of the Legacy Systems Foundation

Timekeeping in computers has limits, and the 2038 problem is a reminder that even small data types can create major issues if ignored.

Brian W. Kernighan

co-creator of Unix

Open source is a development methodology; it’s not inherently good or bad, it’s a tool that can be used to create great software.

Bill Gates

on Microsoft and open source philosophy, 2007

Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.

Eric S. Raymond

Author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar