I have ran a few tests on 16.04, 18.04, 18.10, and 19.04 (all X86_64): 16.04:
root@u1604:~# date +%-Y -d '- 2010 years' 9 root@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@bionic:~# date +%-Y -d '- 2010 years' 9 root@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@u1810:~# date +%-Y -d '- 2010 years' 9 root@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@piatam:/data/buildd/coreutils$ date +%-Y -d '- 2010 years' date: invalid date ‘- 2010 years’ 1 cerdea@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@piatam:/data/buildd/coreutils$ src/date +%-Y -d '- 2010 years' src/date: invalid date ‘- 2010 years’ 1 cerdea@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. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to coreutils in Ubuntu. 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) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/coreutils/+bug/1824688/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp