So much for the idea of storing ID strings in zic output files as (unused) abbreviations. The zone America/Pangnirtung needs 41 bytes to store all the abbreviations it uses: -00 AWT APT AST ADDT ADT EDT EST CST CDT A zic output file can have at most 50 bytes of abbreviations, as set by TZ_MAX_CHARS in tzfile.h The 9 bytes remaining isn't enough for our purposes. (We don't want to boost TZ_MAX_CHARS; localtime.c checks files to ensure they have at most that many abbreviation characters; files with more would be rejected, at least by now-in-the-field binaries compiled from localtime.c) Note that the last component of "Zone" names (such as the "Vevay" in "America/Indiana/Vevay") would fit in the 15 "reserved for future use" bytes at the front of zic output files; full names would not (always) fit, and there would not (always) be room for a prefix such as "@(#)." @dashdashado