August 2016 - tz - lists.iana.org

Use of <> delimiters in TZ string is not documented
by Alexander Belopolsky Aug. 19, 2016

Aug. 19, 2016

The Asia/Almaty tzfile generated from recent Github tzdata snapshot contains the following TZ string at the end of the file $ git describe 2016f-7-ge0a7616 $ strings etc/zoneinfo/Asia/Almaty | tail -1 <+06>-6 This format is not documented in newtzset.3: When TZ is used directly as a specification of the time conversion information, it must have the following syntax (spaces inserted for clarity): stdoffset[dst[offset][,rule]] Where: std and dst Three or more bytes that are the designation for the standard (std) or summer (dst) time zone. Only std is required; if dst is missing, then summer time does not apply in this locale. Upper- and lowercase letters are explicitly allowed. Any characters except a leading colon (:), digits, comma (,), ASCII minus (-), ASCII plus (+), and NUL bytes are allowed.

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Egypt DST Abolition Decree
by Matt Johnson Aug. 10, 2016

Aug. 10, 2016

For those interested, I've finally been able to locate the published decree associated with Egypt's abolition of DST. Published in the Official Gazette #29, Year 2016, Legislation # 62. Date of publication 2016-07-24. http://www.cc.gov.eg/Images/L/369859.pdf I believe it simply reflects the permanent cancellation of DST, but a more direct translation or summary would be appreciated. (Translation tools are failing due to the nature of how the Arabic text is embedded in the PDF.) Thanks, Matt

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Kuwait considers DST
by Matt Johnson Aug. 9, 2016

Aug. 9, 2016

Apparently Kuwait is considering introducing DST next year. It has never done so before. I can't find a more official reference at the moment, but worth keeping an eye on: https://twitter.com/jahrawie/status/762362762760744961 Any Arabic native speakers able to read the text in the images? If so, a summary would be appreciated. Thanks, Matt

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New leap second
by Meno Hochschild Aug. 8, 2016

Aug. 8, 2016

Dear users of tzdb, IERS has announced a new leap second at the end of year 2016, see https://hpiers.obspm.fr/iers/bul/bulc/bulletinc.dat Another point: I have myself written a time library in Java called Time4J which contains a tz compiler based on your data and which also evaluates the leap second file contained in tz-data. Hence this library could be listed in the file "tz-link" within the section "Other tz compilers" maybe with this description: <a href="https://github.com/MenoData/Time4J/">Time4J – Advanced date, time and interval library for Java</a> , uses the class <code>net.time4j.tool.TimezoneRepositoryCompiler.java</code> located in TZTool-module that compiles <code><abbr>tz</abbr></code> source into a Time4J-specific binary format. Time4J is available under a LGPLv2.1-licence. Cheers and thanks for your very useful work Meno

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POSIX-TZ-environment-variable-style string rules
by Alexander Belopolsky Aug. 5, 2016

Aug. 5, 2016

The tzfile.5 manual page describes the TZ string found at the end of the version 2+ tzfiles as follows: "After the second header and data comes a newline-enclosed, POSIX-TZ-environment-variable-style string for use in handling instants after the last transition time stored in the file." Consider the case when the last transition time (T) stored in the file comes a few weeks before the first POSIX rule transition P > T. What local time type should be used for the the times after T, but before P? The strict reading of the manual page suggests that one should use the the local time type derived from the POSIX rule for all times t >= T, but it would be more reasonable to continue using the type that corresponds to T for times T <= t < P. It turns out the two alternative logics are implemented in real life. The glibc library switches [1] to the POSIX rule when t >= P, while the tzcode implementation uses POSIX rule to supply additional transitions with the first POSIX-derived transition at P. This leads to a discrepancy between glibc and tzcode results that is best described on the Ubuntu bug tracker (bug #1587128 [2]). While tzcode behavior is more logical, glibc code seems to better match the documentation and it will probably be an uphill battle to get a fix into glibc. [3] I think a better solution would be to make zic add a redundant transition when the local time type corresponding to the last transition does not match the POSIX rule. This will ensure that tzcode and glibc produces the same results and systems affected by this issue can be fixed by simply upgrading the zoneinfo database. [1]: https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=blob;f=time/tzfile.c;h=9049878399… [2]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/glibc/+bug/1587128 [3]: https://sourceware.org/ml/libc-help/2016-04/msg00000.html

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Morocco DST change happened on 4/June/2016 instead of 5/June/2016
by Gopal . Aug. 4, 2016

Aug. 4, 2016

Hi Team, TZupdater updated time zone 1 day before scheduled time, it was supposed to change time on 5 June 2016 for Morocco Casablanca and but application time changed on 4 June 2016. Could you please let us know as we are facing some problems in application due to this. Regards Gopal This e-mail and all material transmitted with it are for the use of the intended recipient(s) ONLY and contains confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies and the original message. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, dissemination, forwarding, printing or copying of this email or any action taken pursuant to the contents of the present e-mail is strictly prohibited and is unlawful. The recipient acknowledges that Comviva Technologies Limited or its management or directors, are unable to exercise control or ensure the integrity over /of the contents of the information contained in e-mail. Any views expressed herein are those of the individual sender only and no binding nature of the contents shall be implied or assumed unless the sender does so expressly with due authority of Comviva Technologies Limited. E-mail and any contents transmitted with it are prone to viruses and related defects despite all efforts to avoid such by Comviva Technologies Limited.

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Regarding IANA update for Novosibirsk Time Zone
by Shruthi Venkataramanan -X (shruthve - WIPRO LIMITED at Cisco) Aug. 2, 2016

Aug. 2, 2016

Hi Iana Team, We have already requested for an update regarding Novosibirsk Time Zone , please find the email chain attached. Currently we want to know, when can you give us an updated Version, so that we can do the changes in our software. Thanks & Regards, Shruthi.

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