On 2021-06-01 17:48, Paul Eggert via tz wrote:
These are good questions. We have the 'backzone' file for type (2) data, but the 'backzone' approach is apparently unsatisfactory for some users of type (2) data.
Part of the problem may be that 'backzone' is a mishmash quality-wise. Today there are only two simple options in the Makefile - use either all of 'backzone' or none of it - and there are real problems with using all of it. Perhaps we could add something that would give users more flexibility.
For example, if a downstream user wants the 'backzone' entry for Europe/Stockholm which is well-documented, but doesn't want backzone's America/Montreal entry because it's not well-attested and is most likely wrong, the user could specify a list of backzone names that includes Europe/Stockholm but excludes America/Montreal. I think it would not be too much work to add something like this to the tzdb code. This would better support users who want a separate Zone for each country in 'backzone', but do not want all of 'backzone'.
To see what some of the major distros do, look at the comments about Ruby on BSDs and package build specs: https://github.com/tzinfo/tzinfo/issues/15#issuecomment-41739379 https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/tree/master/contrib/tzdata https://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/misc/zoneinfo/ https://salsa.debian.org/glibc-team/tzdata/-/tree/sid/debian https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/tzdata/tree/rawhide https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/openSUSE:Factory/timezone - view https://github.com/bmwiedemann/openSUSE/tree/master/packages/t/timezone - raw download Most distros have some localized, possibly graphical, tzsetup utility. -- Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada This email may be disturbing to some readers as it contains too much technical detail. Reader discretion is advised. [Data in binary units and prefixes, physical quantities in SI.]