alan perry wrote:
A couple of days ago, I posted something to this list about how to go about changing the tz file format to support a 64-bit time_t value. I have heard nothing back.
I've been thinking about the problem a bit, since I'm interested in adapting the code to Java, which has a 64-bit millisecond time count with the same epoch as Unix time_t.
As I noted earlier, the current tz file format doesn't scale well to a 64-bit time_t and all of the possible additional timezone transitions that result from the addition years that can be represented.
Actually, the current format is quite suitable (doubling the size of all time_t's in it, obviously). It just becomes necessary to drop the idea that timezone files are good from now until the End Of Time. The idea of setting an explicit expiration date has been around for a while, but not IMHO implemented yet. A 64-bit version of zic can set the expiration date based on information in the source files, or simply to some sufficiently remote date like 2100. Time zone data changes fairly often anyway, and 2100 will see most of us safely dead. :-) -- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org You tollerday donsk? N. You tolkatiff scowegian? Nn. You spigotty anglease? Nnn. You phonio saxo? Nnnn. Clear all so! 'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)