June 2021 - tz - lists.iana.org

FORMAT Missing in Africa/Windhoek & America/Belize
by vaibhav shrivastava June 24, 2021

June 24, 2021

Please check FORMAT is marked as %s for these 2 timezone Africa/Windhoek & America/Belize Zone Africa/Windhoek 2:00 Namibia %s Same for America/Belize -6:00 Belize %s Regards, Vaibhav

2 1

Tzdata - timedatectl issue
by Prasanth Ramesh June 23, 2021

June 23, 2021

Hi, I am facing an issue with the timedatectl command outputs which were wrong from 2020b version tzdata (Local time & Time zone) values were wrong are there any changes happened relevant to this? *From- tzdata-2020b version - Broken* #timedatectl * Local time: Fri 2019-11-29 16:42:57 * Universal time: Fri 2019-11-29 16:42:57 UTC RTC time: n/a * Time zone: Asia/Kolkata (, +0000)* System clock synchronized: no NTP service: inactive RTC in local TZ: no *Before tzdata-2020a - Good*#timedatectl * Local time: Fri 2019-11-29 22:03:40 IST* Universal time: Fri 2019-11-29 16:33:40 UTC RTC time: n/a * Time zone: Asia/Kolkata (IST, +0530)* System clock synchronized: no NTP service: inactive RTC in local TZ: no Thanks & Regards, Prasanth

1 1

Destruction of timezone history - please revert (typos corrected)
by Alois Treindl June 15, 2021

June 15, 2021

I consider the decision to merge zones of multiple countries, just because they share a common post-1970 history, one of the worst decisions ever made for the TZ project. There used to be Zone Europe/Copenhagen, which represented the exact timezone history of Copenhagen, in fact of all of Denmark, since the introduction of standard time in Denmark in 1890. Now the file 'europe' says # For Denmark see Europe/Berlin. But zone Europe/Berlin is a bad representation of Denmark's timezone history. It gives false data from 1949 backward. The decision to remove zones like Europe/Copenhagen from the main zone files destroys the work of a whole generation of timezone history researchers. It is a completely unnecessary step, forced by nothing. I urge the responsible persons to revert this step.

3 7

Question about invalid timezone file: no timezone found in OlsonData
by Joe Culler June 14, 2021

June 14, 2021

Hello, I have a program running on Yocto. When it runs, I get an error: /usr/share/zoneinfo/Israel: invalid timezone file: no timezone found in OlsonData If I copy zoneinfo's directory from Linux distros (Debian, Ubutnu, ArchLinux), the program runs without an error. I downloaded tzdb-2021a.tar.lz and installed it, encountered the same error. Did I miss something? Thanks. - Joe

3 3

[PROPOSED] Avoid backward links in zone.tab
by Paul Eggert June 12, 2021

June 12, 2021

Recent changes caused zone.tab to refer to links defined in the 'backward' file, which means it no longer works in the now-rare case where 'backward' is not used. Fix this by changing zone.tab to refer to the primary name of each zone. * checktab.awk: Adjust to check the new setup. * zone.tab: Replace backward links in the 3rd column with the primary zone names. This lets us fix a longstanding problem with Vietnam, as zone.tab can now have a separate entry for north Vietnam's different time zone history in the 1970s (this was already true of zone1970.tab). --- checktab.awk | 48 +++++++-------- zone.tab | 161 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------------- 2 files changed, 105 insertions(+), 104 deletions(-) diff --git a/checktab.awk b/checktab.awk index 54ac0a6..d5317ac 100644 --- a/checktab.awk +++ b/checktab.awk @@ -58,11 +58,12 @@ BEGIN { zone_table, zone_NR >>"/dev/stderr" status = 1 } - split($1, cca, /,/) - cc = cca[1] + ccs = input_ccs[zone_NR] = $1 coordinates = $2 tz = $3 - comments = $4 + comments = input_comments[zone_NR] = $4 + split(ccs, cca, /,/) + cc = cca[1] # Don't complain about a special case for Crimea in zone.tab. # FIXME: zone.tab should be removed, since it is obsolete. @@ -77,12 +78,9 @@ BEGIN { cc0 = cc tz0 = tz tztab[tz] = 1 - tz2comments[tz] = comments tz2NR[tz] = zone_NR for (i in cca) { cc = cca[i] - cctz = cc tz - cctztab[cctz] = 1 if (cc2name[cc]) { cc_used[cc]++ } else { @@ -99,27 +97,27 @@ BEGIN { } } - for (cctz in cctztab) { - cc = substr (cctz, 1, 2) - tz = substr (cctz, 3) - if (1 < cc_used[cc]) { - comments_needed[tz] = cc - } - } - for (cctz in cctztab) { - cc = substr (cctz, 1, 2) - tz = substr (cctz, 3) - if (!comments_needed[tz] && tz2comments[tz]) { + for (i = 1; i <= zone_NR; i++) { + ccs = input_ccs[i] + if (!ccs) continue + comments = input_comments[i] + split(ccs, cca, /,/) + used_max = 0 + for (j in cca) { + cc = cca[j] + if (used_max < cc_used[cc]) { + used_max = cc_used[cc] + } + } + if (used_max <= 1 && comments) { printf "%s:%d: unnecessary comment '%s'\n", \ - zone_table, tz2NR[tz], tz2comments[tz] \ - >>"/dev/stderr" - tz2comments[tz] = 0 + zone_table, i, comments \ + >>"/dev/stderr" status = 1 - } else if (comments_needed[tz] && !tz2comments[tz]) { + } else if (1 < cc_used[cc] && !comments) { printf "%s:%d: missing comment for %s\n", \ - zone_table, tz2NR[tz], comments_needed[tz] \ + zone_table, i, cc \ >>"/dev/stderr" - tz2comments[tz] = 1 status = 1 } } @@ -172,14 +170,12 @@ END { status = 1 } } - if (zone_table != "zone.tab") { - for (tz in tztab) { + for (tz in tztab) { if (!zoneSeen[tz]) { printf "%s:%d: no Zone table for '%s'\n", \ zone_table, tz2NR[tz], tz >>"/dev/stderr" status = 1 } - } } if (0 < want_warnings) { for (cc in cc2name) { diff --git a/zone.tab b/zone.tab index 14fceb9..fe53f0a 100644 --- a/zone.tab +++ b/zone.tab @@ -16,6 +16,10 @@ # clocks have agreed since 1970; this is a narrower definition than # that of zone1970.tab. # +# Unlike zone1970.tab, this file's third column can contain duplicates, +# and a row's third column does not necessarily name a location within +# the country identified by the row's first column. +# # This table is intended as an aid for users, to help them select timezones # appropriate for their practical needs. It is not intended to take or # endorse any position on legal or territorial claims. @@ -25,12 +29,12 @@ AD +4230+00131 Europe/Andorra AE +2518+05518 Asia/Dubai AF +3431+06912 Asia/Kabul -AG +1703-06148 America/Antigua -AI +1812-06304 America/Anguilla +AG +1703-06148 America/Port_of_Spain +AI +1812-06304 America/Port_of_Spain AL +4120+01950 Europe/Tirane AM +4011+04430 Asia/Yerevan -AO -0848+01314 Africa/Luanda -AQ -7750+16636 Antarctica/McMurdo New Zealand time - McMurdo, South Pole +AO -0848+01314 Africa/Lagos +AQ -7750+16636 Pacific/Auckland New Zealand time - McMurdo, South Pole AQ -6617+11031 Antarctica/Casey Casey AQ -6835+07758 Antarctica/Davis Davis AQ -6640+14001 Antarctica/DumontDUrville Dumont-d'Urville @@ -66,23 +70,23 @@ AU -3455+13835 Australia/Adelaide South Australia AU -1228+13050 Australia/Darwin Northern Territory AU -3157+11551 Australia/Perth Western Australia (most areas) AU -3143+12852 Australia/Eucla Western Australia (Eucla) -AW +1230-06958 America/Aruba -AX +6006+01957 Europe/Mariehamn +AW +1230-06958 America/Curacao +AX +6006+01957 Europe/Helsinki AZ +4023+04951 Asia/Baku -BA +4352+01825 Europe/Sarajevo +BA +4352+01825 Europe/Belgrade BB +1306-05937 America/Barbados BD +2343+09025 Asia/Dhaka BE +5050+00420 Europe/Brussels -BF +1222-00131 Africa/Ouagadougou +BF +1222-00131 Africa/Abidjan BG +4241+02319 Europe/Sofia -BH +2623+05035 Asia/Bahrain -BI -0323+02922 Africa/Bujumbura -BJ +0629+00237 Africa/Porto-Novo -BL +1753-06251 America/St_Barthelemy +BH +2623+05035 Asia/Qatar +BI -0323+02922 Africa/Maputo +BJ +0629+00237 Africa/Lagos +BL +1753-06251 America/Port_of_Spain BM +3217-06446 Atlantic/Bermuda BN +0456+11455 Asia/Brunei BO -1630-06809 America/La_Paz -BQ +120903-0681636 America/Kralendijk +BQ +120903-0681636 America/Curacao BR -0351-03225 America/Noronha Atlantic islands BR -0127-04829 America/Belem Para (east); Amapa BR -0343-03830 America/Fortaleza Brazil (northeast: MA, PI, CE, RN, PB) @@ -101,7 +105,7 @@ BR -0640-06952 America/Eirunepe Amazonas (west) BR -0958-06748 America/Rio_Branco Acre BS +2505-07721 America/Nassau BT +2728+08939 Asia/Thimphu -BW -2439+02555 Africa/Gaborone +BW -2439+02555 Africa/Maputo BY +5354+02734 Europe/Minsk BZ +1730-08812 America/Belize CA +4734-05243 America/St_Johns Newfoundland; Labrador (southeast) @@ -133,17 +137,17 @@ CA +6043-13503 America/Whitehorse MST - Yukon (east) CA +6404-13925 America/Dawson MST - Yukon (west) CA +4916-12307 America/Vancouver Pacific - BC (most areas) CC -1210+09655 Indian/Cocos -CD -0418+01518 Africa/Kinshasa Dem. Rep. of Congo (west) -CD -1140+02728 Africa/Lubumbashi Dem. Rep. of Congo (east) -CF +0422+01835 Africa/Bangui -CG -0416+01517 Africa/Brazzaville +CD -0418+01518 Africa/Lagos Dem. Rep. of Congo (west) +CD -1140+02728 Africa/Maputo Dem. Rep. of Congo (east) +CF +0422+01835 Africa/Lagos +CG -0416+01517 Africa/Lagos CH +4723+00832 Europe/Zurich CI +0519-00402 Africa/Abidjan CK -2114-15946 Pacific/Rarotonga CL -3327-07040 America/Santiago Chile (most areas) CL -5309-07055 America/Punta_Arenas Region of Magallanes CL -2709-10926 Pacific/Easter Easter Island -CM +0403+00942 Africa/Douala +CM +0403+00942 Africa/Lagos CN +3114+12128 Asia/Shanghai Beijing Time CN +4348+08735 Asia/Urumqi Xinjiang Time CO +0436-07405 America/Bogota @@ -156,10 +160,10 @@ CY +3510+03322 Asia/Nicosia Cyprus (most areas) CY +3507+03357 Asia/Famagusta Northern Cyprus CZ +5005+01426 Europe/Prague DE +5230+01322 Europe/Berlin Germany (most areas) -DE +4742+00841 Europe/Busingen Busingen -DJ +1136+04309 Africa/Djibouti +DE +4742+00841 Europe/Zurich Swiss time +DJ +1136+04309 Africa/Nairobi DK +5540+01235 Europe/Copenhagen -DM +1518-06124 America/Dominica +DM +1518-06124 America/Port_of_Spain DO +1828-06954 America/Santo_Domingo DZ +3647+00303 Africa/Algiers EC -0210-07950 America/Guayaquil Ecuador (mainland) @@ -167,11 +171,11 @@ EC -0054-08936 Pacific/Galapagos Galapagos Islands EE +5925+02445 Europe/Tallinn EG +3003+03115 Africa/Cairo EH +2709-01312 Africa/El_Aaiun -ER +1520+03853 Africa/Asmara +ER +1520+03853 Africa/Nairobi ES +4024-00341 Europe/Madrid Spain (mainland) ES +3553-00519 Africa/Ceuta Ceuta, Melilla ES +2806-01524 Atlantic/Canary Canary Islands -ET +0902+03842 Africa/Addis_Ababa +ET +0902+03842 Africa/Nairobi FI +6010+02458 Europe/Helsinki FJ -1808+17825 Pacific/Fiji FK -5142-05751 Atlantic/Stanley @@ -180,22 +184,22 @@ FM +0658+15813 Pacific/Pohnpei Pohnpei/Ponape FM +0519+16259 Pacific/Kosrae Kosrae FO +6201-00646 Atlantic/Faroe FR +4852+00220 Europe/Paris -GA +0023+00927 Africa/Libreville +GA +0023+00927 Africa/Lagos GB +513030-0000731 Europe/London -GD +1203-06145 America/Grenada +GD +1203-06145 America/Port_of_Spain GE +4143+04449 Asia/Tbilisi GF +0456-05220 America/Cayenne -GG +492717-0023210 Europe/Guernsey +GG +492717-0023210 Europe/London GH +0533-00013 Africa/Accra GI +3608-00521 Europe/Gibraltar GL +6411-05144 America/Nuuk Greenland (most areas) GL +7646-01840 America/Danmarkshavn National Park (east coast) GL +7029-02158 America/Scoresbysund Scoresbysund/Ittoqqortoormiit GL +7634-06847 America/Thule Thule/Pituffik -GM +1328-01639 Africa/Banjul -GN +0931-01343 Africa/Conakry -GP +1614-06132 America/Guadeloupe -GQ +0345+00847 Africa/Malabo +GM +1328-01639 Africa/Abidjan +GN +0931-01343 Africa/Abidjan +GP +1614-06132 America/Port_of_Spain +GQ +0345+00847 Africa/Lagos GR +3758+02343 Europe/Athens GS -5416-03632 Atlantic/South_Georgia GT +1438-09031 America/Guatemala @@ -204,7 +208,7 @@ GW +1151-01535 Africa/Bissau GY +0648-05810 America/Guyana HK +2217+11409 Asia/Hong_Kong HN +1406-08713 America/Tegucigalpa -HR +4548+01558 Europe/Zagreb +HR +4548+01558 Europe/Belgrade HT +1832-07220 America/Port-au-Prince HU +4730+01905 Europe/Budapest ID -0610+10648 Asia/Jakarta Java, Sumatra @@ -213,29 +217,29 @@ ID -0507+11924 Asia/Makassar Borneo (east, south); Sulawesi/Celebes, Bali, Nusa ID -0232+14042 Asia/Jayapura New Guinea (West Papua / Irian Jaya); Malukus/Moluccas IE +5320-00615 Europe/Dublin IL +314650+0351326 Asia/Jerusalem -IM +5409-00428 Europe/Isle_of_Man +IM +5409-00428 Europe/London IN +2232+08822 Asia/Kolkata IO -0720+07225 Indian/Chagos IQ +3321+04425 Asia/Baghdad IR +3540+05126 Asia/Tehran IS +6409-02151 Atlantic/Reykjavik IT +4154+01229 Europe/Rome -JE +491101-0020624 Europe/Jersey +JE +491101-0020624 Europe/London JM +175805-0764736 America/Jamaica JO +3157+03556 Asia/Amman JP +353916+1394441 Asia/Tokyo KE -0117+03649 Africa/Nairobi KG +4254+07436 Asia/Bishkek -KH +1133+10455 Asia/Phnom_Penh +KH +1133+10455 Asia/Bangkok KI +0125+17300 Pacific/Tarawa Gilbert Islands KI -0308-17105 Pacific/Enderbury Phoenix Islands KI +0152-15720 Pacific/Kiritimati Line Islands -KM -1141+04316 Indian/Comoro -KN +1718-06243 America/St_Kitts +KM -1141+04316 Africa/Nairobi +KN +1718-06243 America/Port_of_Spain KP +3901+12545 Asia/Pyongyang KR +3733+12658 Asia/Seoul -KW +2920+04759 Asia/Kuwait -KY +1918-08123 America/Cayman +KW +2920+04759 Asia/Riyadh +KY +1918-08123 America/Panama KZ +4315+07657 Asia/Almaty Kazakhstan (most areas) KZ +4448+06528 Asia/Qyzylorda Qyzylorda/Kyzylorda/Kzyl-Orda KZ +5312+06337 Asia/Qostanay Qostanay/Kostanay/Kustanay @@ -243,13 +247,13 @@ KZ +5017+05710 Asia/Aqtobe Aqtobe/Aktobe KZ +4431+05016 Asia/Aqtau Mangghystau/Mankistau KZ +4707+05156 Asia/Atyrau Atyrau/Atirau/Gur'yev KZ +5113+05121 Asia/Oral West Kazakhstan -LA +1758+10236 Asia/Vientiane +LA +1758+10236 Asia/Bangkok LB +3353+03530 Asia/Beirut -LC +1401-06100 America/St_Lucia -LI +4709+00931 Europe/Vaduz +LC +1401-06100 America/Port_of_Spain +LI +4709+00931 Europe/Zurich LK +0656+07951 Asia/Colombo LR +0618-01047 Africa/Monrovia -LS -2928+02730 Africa/Maseru +LS -2928+02730 Africa/Johannesburg LT +5441+02519 Europe/Vilnius LU +4936+00609 Europe/Luxembourg LV +5657+02406 Europe/Riga @@ -257,26 +261,26 @@ LY +3254+01311 Africa/Tripoli MA +3339-00735 Africa/Casablanca MC +4342+00723 Europe/Monaco MD +4700+02850 Europe/Chisinau -ME +4226+01916 Europe/Podgorica -MF +1804-06305 America/Marigot -MG -1855+04731 Indian/Antananarivo +ME +4226+01916 Europe/Belgrade +MF +1804-06305 America/Port_of_Spain +MG -1855+04731 Africa/Nairobi MH +0709+17112 Pacific/Majuro Marshall Islands (most areas) MH +0905+16720 Pacific/Kwajalein Kwajalein -MK +4159+02126 Europe/Skopje -ML +1239-00800 Africa/Bamako +MK +4159+02126 Europe/Belgrade +ML +1239-00800 Africa/Abidjan MM +1647+09610 Asia/Yangon MN +4755+10653 Asia/Ulaanbaatar Mongolia (most areas) MN +4801+09139 Asia/Hovd Bayan-Olgiy, Govi-Altai, Hovd, Uvs, Zavkhan MN +4804+11430 Asia/Choibalsan Dornod, Sukhbaatar MO +221150+1133230 Asia/Macau -MP +1512+14545 Pacific/Saipan +MP +1512+14545 Pacific/Guam MQ +1436-06105 America/Martinique -MR +1806-01557 Africa/Nouakchott -MS +1643-06213 America/Montserrat +MR +1806-01557 Africa/Abidjan +MS +1643-06213 America/Port_of_Spain MT +3554+01431 Europe/Malta MU -2010+05730 Indian/Mauritius MV +0410+07330 Indian/Maldives -MW -1547+03500 Africa/Blantyre +MW -1547+03500 Africa/Maputo MX +1924-09909 America/Mexico_City Central Time MX +2105-08646 America/Cancun Eastern Standard Time - Quintana Roo MX +2058-08937 America/Merida Central Time - Campeche, Yucatan @@ -293,7 +297,7 @@ MY +0133+11020 Asia/Kuching Sabah, Sarawak MZ -2558+03235 Africa/Maputo NA -2234+01706 Africa/Windhoek NC -2216+16627 Pacific/Noumea -NE +1331+00207 Africa/Niamey +NE +1331+00207 Africa/Lagos NF -2903+16758 Pacific/Norfolk NG +0627+00324 Africa/Lagos NI +1209-08617 America/Managua @@ -304,7 +308,7 @@ NR -0031+16655 Pacific/Nauru NU -1901-16955 Pacific/Niue NZ -3652+17446 Pacific/Auckland New Zealand (most areas) NZ -4357-17633 Pacific/Chatham Chatham Islands -OM +2336+05835 Asia/Muscat +OM +2336+05835 Asia/Dubai PA +0858-07932 America/Panama PE -1203-07703 America/Lima PF -1732-14934 Pacific/Tahiti Society Islands @@ -359,32 +363,32 @@ RU +4658+14242 Asia/Sakhalin MSK+08 - Sakhalin Island RU +6728+15343 Asia/Srednekolymsk MSK+08 - Sakha (E); North Kuril Is RU +5301+15839 Asia/Kamchatka MSK+09 - Kamchatka RU +6445+17729 Asia/Anadyr MSK+09 - Bering Sea -RW -0157+03004 Africa/Kigali +RW -0157+03004 Africa/Maputo SA +2438+04643 Asia/Riyadh SB -0932+16012 Pacific/Guadalcanal SC -0440+05528 Indian/Mahe SD +1536+03232 Africa/Khartoum SE +5920+01803 Europe/Stockholm SG +0117+10351 Asia/Singapore -SH -1555-00542 Atlantic/St_Helena -SI +4603+01431 Europe/Ljubljana -SJ +7800+01600 Arctic/Longyearbyen -SK +4809+01707 Europe/Bratislava -SL +0830-01315 Africa/Freetown -SM +4355+01228 Europe/San_Marino -SN +1440-01726 Africa/Dakar -SO +0204+04522 Africa/Mogadishu +SH -1555-00542 Africa/Abidjan +SI +4603+01431 Europe/Belgrade +SJ +7800+01600 Europe/Oslo +SK +4809+01707 Europe/Prague +SL +0830-01315 Africa/Abidjan +SM +4355+01228 Europe/Rome +SN +1440-01726 Africa/Abidjan +SO +0204+04522 Africa/Nairobi SR +0550-05510 America/Paramaribo SS +0451+03137 Africa/Juba ST +0020+00644 Africa/Sao_Tome SV +1342-08912 America/El_Salvador -SX +180305-0630250 America/Lower_Princes +SX +180305-0630250 America/Curacao SY +3330+03618 Asia/Damascus -SZ -2618+03106 Africa/Mbabane +SZ -2618+03106 Africa/Johannesburg TC +2128-07108 America/Grand_Turk TD +1207+01503 Africa/Ndjamena TF -492110+0701303 Indian/Kerguelen -TG +0608+00113 Africa/Lome +TG +0608+00113 Africa/Abidjan TH +1345+10031 Asia/Bangkok TJ +3835+06848 Asia/Dushanbe TK -0922-17114 Pacific/Fakaofo @@ -396,12 +400,12 @@ TR +4101+02858 Europe/Istanbul TT +1039-06131 America/Port_of_Spain TV -0831+17913 Pacific/Funafuti TW +2503+12130 Asia/Taipei -TZ -0648+03917 Africa/Dar_es_Salaam +TZ -0648+03917 Africa/Nairobi UA +5026+03031 Europe/Kiev Ukraine (most areas) UA +4837+02218 Europe/Uzhgorod Transcarpathia UA +4750+03510 Europe/Zaporozhye Zaporozhye and east Lugansk -UG +0019+03225 Africa/Kampala -UM +2813-17722 Pacific/Midway Midway Islands +UG +0019+03225 Africa/Nairobi +UM +2813-17722 Pacific/Pago_Pago Midway Islands UM +1917+16637 Pacific/Wake Wake Island US +404251-0740023 America/New_York Eastern (most areas) US +421953-0830245 America/Detroit Eastern - MI (most areas) @@ -435,17 +439,18 @@ US +211825-1575130 Pacific/Honolulu Hawaii UY -345433-0561245 America/Montevideo UZ +3940+06648 Asia/Samarkand Uzbekistan (west) UZ +4120+06918 Asia/Tashkent Uzbekistan (east) -VA +415408+0122711 Europe/Vatican -VC +1309-06114 America/St_Vincent +VA +415408+0122711 Europe/Rome +VC +1309-06114 America/Port_of_Spain VE +1030-06656 America/Caracas -VG +1827-06437 America/Tortola -VI +1821-06456 America/St_Thomas -VN +1045+10640 Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh +VG +1827-06437 America/Port_of_Spain +VI +1821-06456 America/Port_of_Spain +VN +1045+10640 Asia/Bangkok Vietnam (north) +VN +1045+10640 Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh Vietnam (south) VU -1740+16825 Pacific/Efate WF -1318-17610 Pacific/Wallis WS -1350-17144 Pacific/Apia -YE +1245+04512 Asia/Aden -YT -1247+04514 Indian/Mayotte +YE +1245+04512 Asia/Riyadh +YT -1247+04514 Africa/Nairobi ZA -2615+02800 Africa/Johannesburg -ZM -1525+02817 Africa/Lusaka -ZW -1750+03103 Africa/Harare +ZM -1525+02817 Africa/Maputo +ZW -1750+03103 Africa/Maputo -- 2.27.0

21 80

Regarding TimezoneDb page on Wiki
by Sachin Mahajan June 12, 2021

June 12, 2021

Dear Folks at IANA, Todays Greetings!!, I really appreciate your efforts to design & maintain TimezoneDb While searching on the net, I couldn't find any list where there is a mapping between 2 different set of timezone record schemes. For example "Europe/Vienna" maps to "(CET) Central European Time" So, I prepared a list for the same.(see the screenshot attached), along with relevant record like timeOffsets, countryCode, hasDST, etc., & want to share it with you IF it is of any value for the cause.I used wiki references & some PHP code for the same. If you think that my list is of any value, I will be glad to share the Excel worksheet it with you.. Thanks & Regards, Sachin M PS: Is there any reason why you haven't differentiated between North America & South America in the tz database?

1 0

Destruction of timezone history - please revert
by Alois Treindl June 12, 2021

June 12, 2021

I consider the decision to merge zones of multiple countries, just because they share a common post-1970 history, one of the worst decisions ever made for the TZ project. There used to be Zone Europe/Copenhagen, which represented the exact timezone history of Copenhagen, in fact all of Denmark, since the introduction of standard time in Denmark in 1890. Not the file 'europe' says # For Denmark see Europe/Berlin. But zone Europe/Berlin is a bad representation Denmark's timezone history. It gives false data from 1949 backward. The decision to remove zones like Europe/Copenhagen from the main zone files destroys the work of a whole generation of timezone history researchers. It is a completely unnecessary step, forced by nothing. I urge the responsible persons top revert this step.

1 0

Re: [tz] Vanguard vs. "main" vs. rearguard
by Paul Eggert June 9, 2021

June 9, 2021

On 5/20/21 10:50 AM, Kerry Shetline wrote: > Is there a particular reason that the following situation is handled with bespoke awk processing: The goal was to keep the data source simple, and put hacks into ziguard.awk when that's easy. I would rather not have these hacks bleed into the data source. > It would be great if the special comments would be all one needed to parse the data for rearguard, main, or vanguard. I see where you're coming from, but that's not the goal here. I didn't want to invent a preprocessor for zic, creating technology that would have to be documented and supported and have backwards-compatibility problems of its own. The vanguard/main/rearguard stuff is just a hopefully-temporary hack that, once it evaporates, will require zero maintenance. By the way, is anybody still using rearguard format? If not, perhaps it's time to retire this stuff now. (That would save us all the hassle of conversations like this one. :-)

4 7

What data should TZDB offer?
by Stephen Colebourne June 7, 2021

June 7, 2021

TZDB has seen recent difficulties due to conflicting desires and expectations of the dataset. This is an attempt to capture some of these: 1) LMT LMT is confusing for many downstream users because they don't understand the concept. Recent threads have noted queries from Postgres users, I can attest to confusion in various Java libraries. In fact, earlier versions of Java removed the LMT concept. I think the time is right to properly consider an alternative to LMT. I believe we can define an offset for each region that the region has most typically been associated with post 1970. For example, Europe/Paris is most associated with +01:00 since 1970. This provides the "normal looking" offset that most users desire for the LMT period. 2) Negative DST Negative DST in the source files continues to be a problem, but we should address other issues first. 3) Links At present, it is not possible to identify which region names are deprecated (such as spelling changes) and which represent important data. Having such a distinction would allow permanent deprecations to be removed from some downstream systems, and would also allow downstream systems to provide functionality to normalize IDs from old to new in a correct and consistent way. 4) Pre-1970 history There is general, though not compete, agreement that TZDB's main focus is on post-1970 data. However I and others have an expectation that pre-1970 data is retained and not be removed. I don't want to get into a position where pre-1970 history is basically completely unreliable relative to the name of the ID. Getting Germany's pre-1970 rules when you have an ID for Oslo or Sweden is not acceptable. (We already have some of that, but the recent proposal would have greatly increased the issue. I feel that there is the potential to achieve an agreeable solution, but it does require acceptance that full pre-1970 history is needed for some places that have the same zone history post-1970. 5) Compatibility guarantee Changes need to be made with more consideration of the implications of compatibility on downstream users that do not use the makefile. Proposal ------------ That TZDB shall adopt the principle that the main geographic files (africa to southamerica) shall contain data with full history for locations where zone history has differed since 1970 subject to the minimum requirement that there is at least one full zone with history defined for each independent country as defined by ISO-3166-1. Dependent territories in ISO-3166-1 that are within 1/24th of the earth circumference of another dependent territory or parent country with the same sovereignty shall be combined if their post-1970 history is identical. That TZDB shall replace LMT with the offset that best represents standard time for the location during the period 1970 to 2021. That TZDB shall define a non-makefile mechanism, which may involve a new file, to identify permanently deprecated IDs, such as "Turkey" or "W-SU". That TZDB shall offer a command line makefile flag that filters the data to reduce the binary output where data is the same post-1970. That consideration is given to whether this flag should erase pre-1970 history as part of it's truncation process. That these rules shall be encoded in the theory file along with an explicit statement of backwards compatibility. ----- It is my belief that this proposal meets the issues expressed above while also respecting the concerns of fairness, guidelines and politics expressed by others. For example, TZDB would not include a full zone with history for Kosovo until ISO-3166-1 includes it. This provides a straightforward defence against the worst issues of politics. The dependent territory rules are designed to allow locations that are close to each other in distance and sovereignty to be combined, such as Jersey and London. I have not analyzed how many zones of full history can be saved by this mechanism. I acknowledge that the above is a significant change to TZBD, but it does more fully align TZDB with the Governmental authorities that actually define time zones. I also believe it more closely aligns TZDB with the expectations of downstream users. Stephen

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[PATCH] Update Android URL on tz-link page
by Almaz Mingaleev June 7, 2021

June 7, 2021

The APK-based time zone date update mechanism was deprecated so the current link to Play Store is misleading. The new link gives relevant information and is kept up-to-date.

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