10 years ago, someone wrote a unit test for @servo@floss.social that included a cookie expiry date of April 18, 2026. At that time Servo was only 3 years old and I'm sure 10 years in the future sounded like a long time!

Well, we're still here, and now our CI is broken until I can get another maintainer to merge https://github.com/servo/servo/pull/44341 .

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A Servo browser engine maintainer shares a story about a unit test written 10 years ago that used a hardcoded cookie expiry date of April 18, 2026, which has now broken CI. The thread evolves into a broader discussion about best practices for time-dependent tests, including mocking system time with tools like Timecop, using far-future dates like year 9999, or avoiding external state in tests altogether. Commenters share similar experiences with date-sensitive test failures and debate the tradeoffs of each approach.

jdm: "10 years ago, someone wrote a …"