Another obscure observation I made on Ubuntu 12.04 (probably affects all previous versions as well):
glaubitz@ubuntu:~$ date -d "11:40 + 1 minutes" Mon Jun 11 12:41:00 CEST 2012 glaubitz@ubuntu:~$ date -d "11:40 + 2 minutes" Mon Jun 11 11:41:00 CEST 2012 glaubitz@ubuntu:~$ date -d "11:40 + 3 minutes" Mon Jun 11 10:41:00 CEST 2012 glaubitz@ubuntu:~$ date -d "11:40 + 4 minutes" Mon Jun 11 09:41:00 CEST 2012 glaubitz@ubuntu:~$ date -d "11:40 + 5 minutes" Mon Jun 11 08:41:00 CEST 2012 On a side note, date seems to have trouble on systems where time_t is too small (i.e. 32 bits instead of 64 bits): glaubitz@debian32:~> lsb_release -rsc 6.0.5 squeeze glaubitz@debian32:~> uname -a Linux debian32 3.2.0-0.bpo.2-686-pae #1 SMP Wed May 30 01:20:28 UTC 2012 i686 GNU/Linux glaubitz@debian32:~> date -d "1000 months ago" date: invalid date `1000 months ago' glaubitz@debian32:~> date -d "2000 months ago" Tue Nov 17 06:29:07 CET 1981 glaubitz@debian32:~> logout Connection to debian32 closed. glaubitz@debian64:~> lsb_release -rsc 6.0.5 squeeze glaubitz@debian64:~> uname -a Linux debian64 3.2.0-0.bpo.1-amd64 #1 SMP Wed Jan 25 00:15:47 UTC 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux glaubitz@debian64:~> date -d "1000 months ago" Mon Feb 11 01:01:14 CET 1929 glaubitz@debian64:~> date -d "2000 months ago" Sat Oct 11 01:01:17 LMT 1845 This was tested on Debian Squeeze, but affects Ubuntu as well (tested on Precise, 12.04). I guess this should be reported to upstream and go into a separate bug report. Adrian -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/51106 Title: Calculations by "date" are wrong To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/coreutils/+bug/51106/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs