some large number. C<$offset> can then be added to a Unix time value
to get what should be the proper value on any system.
-On Windows (at least), you shouldn't pass a negative value to C<gmtime> or
-C<localtime>.
-
=head2 Character sets and character encoding
Assume very little about character sets.
delimiting character, VOS files, directories, or links whose names
contain a slash character cannot be processed. Such files must be
renamed before they can be processed by Perl. Note that VOS limits
-file names to 32 or fewer characters.
+file names to 32 or fewer characters, file names cannot start with a
+C<-> character, or contain any character matching C<< tr/ !%&'()*+;<>?// >>
The value of C<$^O> on VOS is "VOS". To determine the architecture that
you are running on without resorting to loading all of C<%Config> you
and applications are executable, and there are no uid/gid
considerations. C<-o> is not supported. (S<Mac OS>)
+C<-w> only inspects the read-only file attribute (FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY),
+which determines whether the directory can be deleted, not whether it can
+be written to. Directories always have read and write access unless denied
+by discretionary access control lists (DACLs). (S<Win32>)
+
C<-r>, C<-w>, C<-x>, and C<-o> tell whether the file is accessible,
which may not reflect UIC-based file protections. (VMS)
=item gmtime
-Same portability caveats as L<localtime>.
+gmtime() has a range of about 2 billion years before and after 1970.
=item ioctl FILEHANDLE,FUNCTION,SCALAR
=item localtime
-Because Perl currently relies on the native standard C localtime()
-function, it is only safe to use times between 0 and (2**31)-1. Times
-outside this range may result in unexpected behavior depending on your
-operating system's implementation of localtime().
+localtime() has the same range as L<gmtime>, but because time zone
+rules change its accuracy for historical and future times may degrade
+but usually by no more than an hour.
=item lstat