Index: /trunk/psLib/src/types/psMetadataConfig.c
===================================================================
--- /trunk/psLib/src/types/psMetadataConfig.c	(revision 9762)
+++ /trunk/psLib/src/types/psMetadataConfig.c	(revision 9763)
@@ -10,6 +10,6 @@
 *  @author Eric Van Alst, MHPCC
 *
-*  @version $Revision: 1.100 $ $Name: not supported by cvs2svn $
-*  @date $Date: 2006-10-27 01:15:44 $
+*  @version $Revision: 1.101 $ $Name: not supported by cvs2svn $
+*  @date $Date: 2006-10-27 02:26:42 $
 *
 *  Copyright 2004-2005 Maui High Performance Computing Center, University of Hawaii
@@ -332,4 +332,10 @@
     PS_ASSERT_PTR_NON_NULL(status, NULL);
     if (!inString) {
+        *status = 0;
+        return NULL;
+    }
+
+    // handle "NULL" as the time value
+    if (strncmp(inString, "NULL", 5) == 0) {
         *status = 0;
         return NULL;