If the zones are volatile, wouldn't it make more sense for someone in the Antarctic scientific community to maintain a private distribution for Antarctica? tzdb could pull from it periodically, such as before each otherwise-scheduled release. But I'd be disappointed if a short-notice Antarctic zone change forced a new public tzdb version. For example, it's not quite the same scenario as the recent Turkey update.
From: kre@munnari.OZ.AU To: Michael.Chinn@aad.gov.au Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2015 12:31:43 +0700 CC: tz@iana.org Subject: Re: [tz] timezone change for antarctica\casey [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2015 05:01:39 +0000 From: Michael Chinn <Michael.Chinn@aad.gov.au> Message-ID: <b269372e88e94074996dbfd2b611cec1@KGS-EX02.AAD.GOV.AU>
| The TZ changes, particularly at Casey, are highly variable,
Oh.
| they are based around resupply and flights.
I assume in that case that someone plans them in advance ... given the logistics, probably a fair time (months?) in advance ?
| I will endeavour to go through the database and pull out the TZ changes, | should be able to get 3-4 years.
Ideally we're looking to go back to at least 1970 (or whenever it was established, if more recent than that) - and even earlier if applicable and possible.
But it does not have to be all at once.
| Regarding predictions, sometimes there are only a couple of days | notice on changes much to the anguish of a few wintering expiditioners.
Oh.
| All changes are visible live on the external site (it's the same database)
That just tells us the current time, and so, unless continually monitored (which I doubt anyone here really has the resources to do) isn't suitable for much more than verifying (or not) that the current data is correct, and at best, would only ever tell us that we should have changed the zone already.
To be really useful, we need to know (however far in advance is possible) when the next change is coming, before it occurs. Ideally more than 2 days!
kre