- tz - lists.iana.org

Review of tzbeta code
by John Cowan Dec. 18, 1997

Dec. 18, 1997

I believe the proposed mechanism for implementing "Updated" timestamps is flawed, and should be modified before leaving beta status. The current design allows either a rule or a zone to be marked as Updated at a certain time, thus. Special comments in the zoneinfo source files of the form #Updated Zone <zonename> <year> [month day hh:mm:ss] or #Updated Rule <rulename> <year> [month day hh:mm:ss] are understood as indicating that the specified Zone or Rule was updated at the specified time. Each binary zoneinfo file is marked to indicate the latest #Updated time associated with it. This is stored in the form "yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss". The beta software currently doesn't actually examine the binary stamp, but the intention is obviously to allow automated supercession of obsolete zoneinfo files. The trouble with this stamp, of course, is that it lacks any indication of time zone! Formally, this does not matter, because the data is read from the source files in ASCII form and written to the binary file in ASCII form. However, comparing two binary files to see which one is more current is an undefined operation, because there is no indication of whether the stamp is UTC, or the zone's own time, or ADO's personal time zone, or what. This will become particularly important if an erroneous source file is issued, because a correction might very well come out quickly, in less than a day. If the correction comes from a different physical location, the #Updated stamp might appear to be earlier in time on the corrected file than on the erroneous one. The results would be most unfortunate. This problem could be resolved by convention, such as always using GMT #Updated values, but this would not be enforced. It would be better, IMHO, to require a <zonename> to be supplied. However, it would probably be a bad idea to make zic runs depend on the pre-existence of a zoneinfo implementation, so the <zonename> could be required to be "GMT" or "UTC". For the same kinds of reasons, the stamp value in the binary zoneinfo files should be stored as a big-endian 32-bit time_t, like other GMT times. -- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan(a)ccil.org e'osai ko sarji la lojban

1 0

problem with tz mailling list?
by Paul Eggert Dec. 18, 1997

Dec. 18, 1997

I got the following bounce message from elsie.nci.nih.gov; is there some problem with the tz mailing list? ------- Start of forwarded message ------- Return-Path: <Mailer-Daemon(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov> Received: from red.twinsun.com (red-office.twinsun.com [192.54.239.70]) by tattoo (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) with SMTP id LAA06184 for <eggert@tattoo>; Thu, 18 Dec 1997 11:32:55 -0800 Received: from alcor.twinsun.com (alcor.twinsun.com [198.147.65.9]) by red.twinsun.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) with SMTP id LAA14437 for <eggert(a)twinsun.com>; Thu, 18 Dec 1997 11:32:55 -0800 Received: from elsie.nci.nih.gov (elsie.nci.nih.gov [165.112.73.1]) by alcor.twinsun.com (8.8.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id LAA29057 for <eggert(a)twinsun.com>; Thu, 18 Dec 1997 11:28:36 -0800 (PST) Received: by elsie.nci.nih.gov (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AB06282; Thu, 18 Dec 97 14:33:19 EST Date: Thu, 18 Dec 97 14:33:19 EST From: Mailer-Daemon(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov (Mail Delivery Subsystem) Subject: Returned mail: Service unavailable Message-Id: <9712181933.AB06282(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov> To: <eggert(a)twinsun.com> Content-Length: 3491 Status: ----- Transcript of session follows ----- <<< HELO alcor.twinsun.com <<< MAIL From:<eggert(a)twinsun.com> <<< RCPT To:<tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov> <<< DATA <<< QUIT Cannot exec '/usr/local/etc/smrsh' errno=2 554 "|exec /mnt/ado/slist/.bin/flist tz"... Service unavailable 554 "|exec /mnt/ado/slist/.bin/flist tz"... Service unavailable ----- Unsent message follows ----- Return-Path: <eggert(a)twinsun.com> Received: from alcor.twinsun.com by elsie.nci.nih.gov (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA06280; Thu, 18 Dec 97 14:33:19 EST Received: from red.twinsun.com ([192.54.239.70]) by alcor.twinsun.com (8.8.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id LAA29052; Thu, 18 Dec 1997 11:27:54 -0800 (PST) Received: from shade.twinsun.com (shade.twinsun.com [192.54.239.27]) by red.twinsun.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) with SMTP id LAA14404; Thu, 18 Dec 1997 11:32:06 -0800 Received: from (eggert@localhost) by shade.twinsun.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id LAA01366; Thu, 18 Dec 1997 11:31:47 -0800 Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 11:31:47 -0800 Message-Id: <199712181931.LAA01366(a)shade.twinsun.com> From: Paul Eggert <eggert(a)twinsun.com> To: bsawyer(a)mtnia.com Cc: tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov In-Reply-To: <9712181343.AA04768(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov> (OLSONA(a)dc37a.nci.nih.gov) Subject: Re: FW: "info about the world time zones" References: <9712181343.AA04768(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov> From: Brian Sawyer[SMTP:bsawyer@mtnia.com] Sent: Thursday, December 18, 1997 1:42 AM I'm wondering if you have any info about the world time zones, not by maps but numbers. example: Marshalltown, Iowa to Los Angelos -2 hours to New York +1 hour and so on. It's not as simple as that, since differences between cities vary with time. For example, during the summer Phoenix is two hours behind Marshalltown, but during the winter, it's only one hour behind. If you just want a simple listing with major cities, you can use the tz database at <ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/>, using America/Chicago to represent Marshalltown (this should be valid for dates at least back to 1970). For example, here's a shell transcript to illustrate the current times in Marshalltown and Los Angeles. $ TZ=America/Chicago date # current time in Marshalltown: Thu Dec 18 13:26:06 CST 1997 $ TZ=America/Los_Angeles date # current time in Los Angeles: Thu Dec 18 11:26:06 PST 1997 If you're building a web site, this sort of thing can be easily done in a CGI script; see <http://www.bsdi.com/date> for an example of this. If you want more detailed listings, by far the best tabular source of historical time zone data that I know of are the following books, which contain location names and time zone histories for thousands of locations around the globe. They will tell you more about Marshalltown's time zone history than you probably know yourself. Thomas G. Shanks, The American Atlas (5th edition), San Diego: ACS Publications, Inc. (1991). Thomas G. Shanks, The International Atlas (4th edition), San Diego: ACS Publications, Inc. (1995). [This covers places outside the United States.] A good source for detailed recent time zone data is the International Air Transport Association's Standard Schedules Information Manual (IATA SSIM), published semiannually. However, this is considerably more expensive than Shanks, and it covers only airports, whereas Shanks covers more burgs and hamlets than even my Rand McNally atlas does, and does an excellent job for most places in the US (though even he throws up his hands at the time zone history of Indiana). ------- End of forwarded message -------

1 0

FW: "info about the world time zones"
by Olson, Arthur David Dec. 18, 1997

Dec. 18, 1997

---------- From: Brian Sawyer[SMTP:bsawyer@mtnia.com] Sent: Thursday, December 18, 1997 1:42 AM To: tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov Subject: I would like to be on your mailing list. I'm wondering if you have any info about the world time zones, not by maps but numbers. example: Marshalltown, Iowa to Los Angelos -2 hours to New York +1 hour and so on. I'm looking for conversions to cities around the world. If you know of a list like this some where, email me back. I can't see the maps very well to see what time it is in another part of the world. I really would like a listing of cities and a + or - hours with them. I hope you can help me out. Thanks for your cooperation and you have a joyous and peaceful holiday season. Sincerely, Brian Sawyer

2 1

I would like to be on your mailing list.
by Brian Sawyer Dec. 18, 1997

Dec. 18, 1997

I'm wondering if you have any info about the world time zones, not by maps but numbers. example: Marshalltown, Iowa to Los Angelos -2 hours to New York +1 hour and so on. I'm looking for conversions to cities around the world. If you know of a list like this some where, email me back. I can't see the maps very well to see what time it is in another part of the world. I really would like a listing of cities and a + or - hours with them. I hope you can help me out. Thanks for your cooperation and you have a joyous and peaceful holiday season. Sincerely, Brian Sawyer

1 0

Re: Could you send me a listing of time zones of the world.
by Brian Sawyer Dec. 18, 1997

Dec. 18, 1997

stewart(a)parc.xerox.com wrote: > > In message <34976107.4451(a)mtnia.com> you write: > >Could you email me time zones of the world by plus or minus hours > >converted from the united states times to the other countries, not by > >just a map, but actually listing the city and then if it ahead or behind > >my time. An example would be: > >Marshalltown, Iowa (I'm from here) to Los Angelos -2 hours > > to New York +1 hour > >and so on with conversions from all over the world. > >I have poor eyes and can't see the maps very good. I'm interested in > >time. I thank you for your time and cooperation. You have a Merry > >Christmas and a Happy New Year. > > Merry christmas to you too. Since I don't have a way to do this offhand, > I'll give you a pointer to some information that will allow you to do this. > The folks who maintain the Timezone Database and the various access > routines have a mailing list at tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov. Current > versions of their database and access library live at > ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub. > > -- > Paul I was asked by Paul if I could refer to you on this matter. Can youhelp me out? Can I be on your mailing list. Contact me by email. Thank you for your cooperation and you have a very peaceful and joyous holiday season. Sincerely, Brian Sawyer

1 0

FW: Non Delivery Report
by Olson, Arthur David Dec. 10, 1997

Dec. 10, 1997

Note that Denis is not on the time zone list; you may want to include Denis in any replies. --ado ---------- From: Denis.Excoffier@ens.fr[SMTP:Denis.Excoffier@ens.fr] Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 1997 11:00 AM To: tz(a)elsie.nci.nih.gov Cc: Denis.Excoffier(a)ens.fr Subject: europe France 1891 Extracted from the "europe" file : # Shanks gives 0:09 for Paris Mean Time; go with Whitman's more precise 0:09:05. Should be 0:09:21 instead. By the way, is there somewhere a lastest version of those files ? Another question : my zdump seems to be broken (mentions 1970 too often). Ever heard about this ? (solaris2.5, sparc20) Have a nice day, Scof.

2 1

europe France 1891
by Denis.Excoffier＠ens.fr Dec. 10, 1997

Dec. 10, 1997

Extracted from the "europe" file : # Shanks gives 0:09 for Paris Mean Time; go with Whitman's more precise 0:09:05. Should be 0:09:21 instead. By the way, is there somewhere a lastest version of those files ? Another question : my zdump seems to be broken (mentions 1970 too often). Ever heard about this ? (solaris2.5, sparc20) Have a nice day, Scof.

1 0

Timezone settings for rarotonga wrong.
by Alan Brown Dec. 2, 1997

Dec. 2, 1997

This may have already been corrected. Rarotonga stopped using Daylight Savings Time at least 6 years ago, probably 8 years ago. It's tropical, so there's no sense in them using it. Daylight savngs was used to keep them in sync with New Zealand's daylight savings changes. (Rarotonga is the main island of the Cook Islands - a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand) It's also 10 hours behind GMT/UTC, not ahead of it. Regards Alan Brown.

1 0

FW: Time zone data
by Olson, Arthur David Dec. 1, 1997

Dec. 1, 1997

Charlie Hendricksen is not on the time zone list; please be sure that Charlie is included in any replies. --ado ---------- From: Charlie Hendricksen[SMTP:veritas@u.washington.edu] Sent: Thursday, November 27, 1997 2:58 PM To: ao1d(a)nih.gov Subject: Time zone data Mr. Olson, I found a reference to your timezone work in Bill Thoen's page. I poked around in the ftp server and noticed five files, all nice and big! I experienced difficulty in extracting the tzarchive.gz. so I thought I would contact you before trying any of the other files. I am interested in obtaining a file of the geocoded boundaries of the time zones. I realize that time zones are marvelously complex and frequently changing, so I don't expect perfection. Since I have access to Arc/Info, I prefer the GIS approach to laborious entry of data into a spreadsheet. Can you steer me in the right direction? -- Charlie Hendricksen veritas(a)u.washington.edu

1 0

Happy Leap Second!
by Chris Newman Nov. 24, 1997

Nov. 24, 1997

I hope everyone enjoys their extra second! This also serves as a test to see what really happens if there is a "60" for seconds in the date header. - Chris

3 3