-----Original Message----- From: Sullivan N. Beck [SMTP:sbeck@cise.ufl.edu] Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 1999 3:48 PM To: tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov Subject: Timezones for US On Solaris 2.6, I noticed that the output from zdump seemed a bit odd. The first lines are: US/Eastern Sat Dec 14 20:45:52 1901 GMT = Sat Dec 14 16:45:52 1901 EWT isdst=0 US/Eastern Sun Mar 31 06:59:59 1918 GMT = Sun Mar 31 02:59:59 1918 EWT isdst=0 ... I'm sure that 1901 shouldn't be in a wartime timezone. I checked the northamerica file (which, BTW, contains exactly the same rules as are in the 1999d tzdata package). I see the following lines: # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule US 1918 1919 - Mar lastSun 2:00 1:00 W # War Rule US 1918 1919 - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S Rule US 1942 only - Feb 9 2:00 1:00 W # War Rule US 1945 only - Sep 30 2:00 0 S Rule US 1967 max - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S Rule US 1967 1973 - Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D Rule US 1974 only - Jan 6 2:00 1:00 D Rule US 1975 only - Feb 23 2:00 1:00 D Rule US 1976 1986 - Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D Rule US 1987 max - Apr Sun>=1 2:00 1:00 D # US Eastern time, represented by New York # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER Rule NYC 1920 only - Mar lastSun 2:00 1:00 D Rule NYC 1920 only - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S Rule NYC 1921 1966 - Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D Rule NYC 1921 1954 - Sep lastSun 2:00 0 S Rule NYC 1955 1966 - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone America/New_York -4:56:02 - LMT 1883 Nov 18 12:00 -5:00 US E%sT 1920 -5:00 NYC E%sT 1942 -5:00 US E%sT 1946 -5:00 NYC E%sT 1967 -5:00 US E%sT Unless I'm missing something, this means that from Nov 18, 1883 to Jan 1, 1920, America/New_York is using the rules named "US". The problem is, there are no "US" rule prior to 1918. A quick glance shows the same thing for America/Chicago, America/Denver, and America/ Los_Angelas. Should there be another Zone line defining an alternate rule, or another "US" rule? ---------------------------- Sullivan Beck ----------------------------- sbeck@cise.ufl.edu | This space reserved for some saying demonstrating CSE 314E | great wisdom, wit, or insight. I'll fill it in PH : (352) 392-1057 | just as soon as I have any of the above. Fax: (352) 392-1220 | ------------------- http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~sbeck/ --------------------