May 2005 - tz - lists.iana.org

Re: TZ environment variable
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) May 20, 2005

May 20, 2005

If the TZ environment variable needs to be checked for mischief-making time zone abbreviations, the same check needs to be applied to values derived from time zone files (since, at least on some systems, users can create arbitrary files and arrange for them to be used with an appropriate TZ setting.) --ado

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Mongolia 2005 (3)
by Oscar van Vlijmen May 20, 2005

May 20, 2005

From: Embassy of Mongolia, Washington, D.C. - Tourism http://www.mongolianembassy.us/eng_tourism/tourism.php "Time Difference Mongolia is 8 hours ahead of GMT in winter and 9 hours ahead in summer. The three western aimags of Mongolia , Uvs, Bayan Ulgii and Khovd are one hour behind Ulaanbaatar and the rest of Mongolia." I found nothing of importance yet on: http://www.open-government.mn/ Oscar van Vlijmen 2005-05-20

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Re: TZ environment variable
by Robbin Kawabata May 19, 2005

May 19, 2005

There was some discussion about localized tznames. SunOS currently doesn't support localized tzname's. If we were to implement it, we would probably take the approach of i18n messages. We could create message catalogs for Olson timezone tznames, which contain translated tznames for the locales. A message-id could be created, perhaps by concatenating the timezone name with the tzname (for example, "America/Los_Angeles_PST"). The message-id could be passed to dcgettext(), which would return the localized tzname according to the locale specified by LC_TIME. We might use a new specifier in strftime() (which would call dcgettext()) to return the localized tzname or the original tzname if no localized tzname exists. We would keep the values of TZ and tzname[] as elements from the portable character set. The TZ environment variable is inherited by applications. By default applications start in the C locale. If a time function is called before setlocale() is done (or if the application does not call setlocale()), the time function could fail if TZ is composed of invalid characters for the C locale. Also, if TZ or tzname[] is composed of multibyte characters, and the application changes locales, it could invalidate those characters. Robbin

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RE: Mongolia has two time zones GMT +7 and GMT +8 (DST GMT +8 and DST GMT +9)
by Bill Bonnett May 19, 2005

May 19, 2005

This is what I got from the U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar: All of Mongolia is on one time zone. It is 13 hours ahead of Washington, D.C. or +8 GMT. Mongolia does observe daylight savings time. Ulaanbaatar (and Irkukst, Russia) share a time zone entry, with daylight savings time option, on Windows XP. _____ From: Risto Nykänen [mailto:ristonykanen@luukku.com] Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 5:38 PM To: Contacts(a)abdicate.net Subject: Mongolia has two time zones GMT +7 and GMT +8 (DST GMT +8 and DST GMT +9) See next link: http://www.miat.com/frame.php?page=travel_information http://www.travelmongolia.org/ Risto P.S. GMT +9 (DST GMT +10) not anylonger in use.

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Mongolia 2005 (2)
by Oscar van Vlijmen May 18, 2005

May 18, 2005

Further research seems to indicate that the situation in Mongolia is even more complicated. See for instance a very short article plus reader comments on: <http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/index.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1111634894& archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&> The UB Post is Mongolias independent weekly news bulletin. The article, dated 23 Mar 2005, says: "Mongolia will observe daylight savings time on March 26. Clocks will be moved forward one hour at 2:00am" A reader comment notes that parliament has decided that there are now 4 time zones: OLGII in the west, on UTC+7 ULAT, most of the country, on UTC+8 ..., a couple of aimags in the east, on UTC+9 SUKH, the Sukhbaatar aimag, on UTC+8.5 The SUKH time zone is new. Oscar van Vlijmen 2005-05-18

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RE: TZ environment variable
by Olson, Arthur David (NIH/NCI) May 18, 2005

May 18, 2005

To aid the discussion of the TZ environment variable, here's a list of the time zone abbreviations that currently show up in binary time zone files if you do a "make install". (I'll put in a vote for changing the mixed-case "ChST" to a mono-case "CHST".) --ado ?? ACT ADT AFT AMT ANT AOT APT ART AST AWT AZT BDT BMT BNT BOT BRT BST BTT CAT CCT CDT CET CGT CIT CJT CKT CLT CMT COT CPT CST CUT CVT CWT CXT DMT EAT ECT EDT EET EGT EIT EPT EST EWT FJT FKT FMT FNT GET GFT GMT GST GYT HDT HKT HMT HPT HST HWT ICT IDT IMT IOT IST JMT JST KDT KGT KMT KST LKT LMT LRT LST MDT MET MHT MMT MOT MPT MSD MSK MST MUT MVT MWT MYT NCT NDT NET NFT NMT NPT NRT NST NUT NWT PDT PET PGT PHT PKT PMT PNT PPT PST PWT PYT QMT RET RMT SBT SCT SGT SMT SRT SST TFT TJT TKT TMT TOT TPT TRT TVT UCT UTC UYT UZT VET VUT WAT WET WFT WGT WIT WMT WST YDT YPT YST YWT zzz ACST ADDT ADMT AHDT AHST AKDT AKST AKTT ALMT AMST ANAT AQTT ARST ASHT AZOT AZST BAKT BDST BEAT BORT BOST BRST BURT CANT CAST CAWT CDDT CEMT CEST CGST CHAT CHDT CHOT ChST CLST COST CVST DACT DAVT DDUT DUST EAST EDDT EEST EGST EHDT FFMT FJST FKST FNST FORT FRUT GALT GAMT GBGT GEST GHST GILT HADT HAST HKST HOVT IDDT IHST IRDT IRKT IRST ISST JAVT KART KAST KGST KIZT KOST KRAT KUYT KWAT LHST LINT LONT MADT MAGT MALT MART MAWT MDDT MDST MEST MOST NCST NDDT NEGT NEST NOVT NZDT NZMT NZST OMST ORAT PDDT PEST PETT PHOT PHST PKST PMDT PMST PONT PPMT PYST QYZT ROTT SAKT SAMT SAST SDMT SHET SJMT SLST SVET SWAT SYOT TAHT TAST TBIT TBMT TOST TRST TRUT ULAT URAT URUT UYST UZST VLAT VOST VUST WAKT WART WAST WEMT WEST WGST YAKT YAPT YDDT YEKT YERT AKTST ALMST ANAST AQTST ASHST AZOMT AZOST BAKST BEAUT CHADT CHAST CHOST CKHST DUSST EASST FRUST GMT+1 GMT+2 GMT+3 GMT+4 GMT+5 GMT+6 GMT+7 GMT+8 GMT+9 GMT-1 GMT-2 GMT-3 GMT-4 GMT-5 GMT-6 GMT-7 GMT-8 GMT-9 HOVST IRKST KIZST KRAST KUYST MADMT MADST MAGST MALST NOVST OMSST ORAST PETST QYZST SAKST SAMST SHEST SVEST TASST TBIST ULAST URAST UYHST VLAST WARST YAKST YEKST YERST BORTST GMT+10 GMT+11 GMT+12 GMT-10 GMT-11 GMT-12 GMT-13 GMT-14 VLASST Local time zone must be set--see zic manual page

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[07]
by retornoviral May 17, 2005

May 17, 2005

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Mongolia 2005
by Oscar van Vlijmen May 16, 2005

May 16, 2005

Several sources say Mongolia has only 2 time zones with DST. The TZ asia file says 3 time zones. http://www.travelmongolia.org/travel.mongolia/travel.info.html reads: " Time Difference Mongolia is 8 hours ahead of GMT in winter and 9 hours ahead in summer. The three western aimags of Mongolia, Uvs, Bayan Ulgii and Khovd are one hour behind Ulaanbaatar and the rest of Mongolia. " MIAT Mongolian Airlines (http://www.miat.com/frame.php?page=travel_information ) also speak of 2 time zones, as does the usually well informed worldtimeserver.com Does anybody have more evidence on the real situation? Oscar van Vlijmen 2005-05-16

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Indiana
by Garrett Wollman May 16, 2005

May 16, 2005

According to press reports I've seen elsewhere, the governor of Indiana signed the bill putting the entire state on DST effective next year. The bill also requires the governor to petition USDOT to relocate the ET/CT boundary, although the reports I've seen were a bit unclear as to where the new boundary would be, if it is even specified in the bill. So I guess at a minimum the database should be updated to show America/Indiana/* on "US" rules starting 2006 Jan 1. -GAWollman

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Time-Keeping at Sea [from Mark Brader]
by Paul Eggert May 15, 2005

May 15, 2005

[Forwarded from Mark Brader. Please note that he is not on the mailing list; replies should be directed accordingly.] From: msb(a)vex.net (Mark Brader) Subject: Time-Keeping at Sea To: eggert(a)twinsun.com Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 00:52:33 -0400 (EDT) Please forward this to the tz mailing list. I am not on the list; people should direct replies accordingly. Your "australasia" file has this from Gwillim Law (2000-01-03): # An Anglo-French Conference on Time-Keeping at Sea (June, 1917) agreed that # legal time on the high seas would be zone time ... A while back I emailed Gwillim to ask about his source for this statement. At the time he didn't remeber, but later he wrote back and told me that it was Howse's "Greenwich Time and the Longitude". Gwillim kindly transcribed the passage from Howse, saving me from finding where my copy is: | In June 1917, therefore, an Anglo-French Conference on Timekeeping at Sea | assembled in London. This recommended that the zone-time system should be | used at sea, clock changes required by changes of longitude being made | preferably in one-hour steps. This recommendation was immediately adopted by | British and French ships, both naval and mercantile. Ships of most other | nations soon followed suit so that, by a few years after the war, zone time | was kept at sea, certainly by almost all naval ships and by many non-naval | ships as well. Nevertheless, up to the Second World War, the old practice of | changing ship's time at midday prevailed in many independent merchant | ships. So if this is correct, the conference said nothing at all about *legal* time; they only recommended a practice. It also isn't clear from this passage whether the recommendation was for the change to happen when the specific meridian was actually crossed, or whether it was okay to do it at a convenient time so long as you did it in one-hour steps. (On the cruise ships I've been on, time zone changes were always done overnight.) It would be interesting to find the conference proceedings and see how the conclusion was actually expressed, and to know whether there actually is such a thing as legal time for some or all ships in international waters. -- Mark Brader | "Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember Toronto | the exact instant when I realized that a large part msb(a)vex.net | of my life... was going to be spent in finding | mistakes in my own programs." -- Maurice Wilkes

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