First of all, in case you were not aware of the fact, 3 of the 238 different ISO 3166 "countries" listed in file "tzdata/iso3166.tab" have no corresponding zone in the "tz" database. They are BV Bouvet Island HM Heard Island & McDonald Islands TP East Timor Bouvet Island is described in file "tzdata/antarctica" as # Norway - territories # Bouvet (uninhabited) Heard Island & McDonald Islands is described in file "tzdata/antarctica" as # Australia - territories # Heard Island, McDonald Islands No other information about Heard Island & McDonald Islands is provided. As for "East Timor", it is an area that both Indonesia and Portugal claim sovereignty over which is not recognized by the United Nations, or so says the 1996 edition of the CIA World Factbook. I can find no reference to "Timor", let alone "East Timor", in any of the "tzdata/*" files except, of course, "tzdata/iso3166.tab". Next, if the "tz" database is REALLY going to adhere to ISO 3166, then the definitions of the various zones should be grouped by the "countries" defined therein. Currently, this is not the case. The following is a complete list of the ISO 3166 countries that have multiple zone entries in the "tz" database. AQ Antarctica AR Argentina AU Australia BR Brazil CA Canada CL Chile CN China EC Ecuador ES Spain FM Micronesia GB Britain (UK) GL Greenland ID Indonesia IL Israel JP Japan KI Kiribati KZ Kazakhstan MH Marshall Islands ML Mali MX Mexico MY Malaysia NZ New Zealand PF French Polynesia PT Portugal RU Russia SJ Svalbard & Jan Mayen UA Ukraine UM US minor outlying islands US United States ZR Zaire There are 30 of them. As reported in my most recent previous email, 23 of these "countries" currently have multiple internal time zones, i.e. multiple areas that differ in how and when they observe the time that they do, but that is irrelevent here. By inspection, I found that the country groupings in the following five continent files tzdata/antarctica tzdata/asia tzdata/australasia tzdata/europe tzdata/northamerica do not, in general, follow the ISO 3166 groupings identified in file "tzdata/zone.tab" from which the above list was extracted. In particular, the following differences have been identified. AQ Antarctica Zone Indian/Kerguelen, that is defined in file "tzdata/antarctica" as part of the Antarctica definitions therein, is part of the "country" identified by the 2-letter country code "TF" for "French Southern & Antarctic Lands" with respect to ISO 3166, which does not appear in the above list. CN China China is identified as the "People's Republic of China" in file "tzdata/asia". This compares to just "China" with respect to ISO 3166. GB Britain (UK) Great Britain is identified as "United Kingdom" in file "tzdata/europe". This compares to "Britain (UK)" with respect to ISO 3166. Zone Europe/Dublin, that is defined in file "tzdata/europe" as part of the so-called "United Kingdom" definitions therein, is part if the country identified by the 2-letter country code "IE" for "Ireland" with respect to ISO 3166, which does not appear in the above list. GL Greenland Zones America/Thule, America/Godthab, and America/Scoresbysund, that are defined in file "tzdata/europe" as part of the Denmark definitions therein, are part of the "country" identified by the 2-letter country code "GL" for "Greenland" with respect to ISO 3166. Zone Atlantic/Faeroe, that is defined in file "tzdata/europe" as part of the Denmark definitions therein, is part of the "country" identified by the 2-letter country code "FO" for "Faeroe Islands" with respect to ISO 3166, which does not appear in the above list. Zone Europe/Copenhagen, that is defined in file "tzdata/europe" as part of the Denmark definitions therein, is part of the country of "Denmark" with its 2-letter country code "DK", with respect to ISO 3166, which does not appear in the above list. IL Israel Zone Asia/Gaza is defined in file "tzdata/asia" as part of a separate set of definitions for "Palestine" therein instead of as part of the corresponding Israel definitions. Yet, Asia/Gaza is part of the country identified by the 2-letter country code "IL" for "Israel" with respect to ISO 3166. SJ Svalbard & Jan Mayen Zone Atlantic/Jan_Mayen, that is defined in file "tzdata/europe" as part of the Norway definitions therein, is part of the "country" identified by the 2-letter country code "SJ" for "Svalbard & Jan Mayen" with respect to ISO 3166. Zone Arctic/Longyearbyen, that is linked to Europe/Oslo in file "tzdata/europe" as part of the Norway definitions therein, is part of the "country" identified by the 2-letter country code "SJ" for "Svalbard & Jan Mayen" with respect to ISO 3166. Zone Europe/Oslo, that is defined in file "tzdata/europe" as part of the Norway definitions therein, is part of the country of Norway with its 2-letter country code "NO" with respect to ISO 3166, which does not appear in the above list. UM US minor outlying islands Zones Pacific/Johnston and Pacific/Wake are individually defined in file "tzdata/australasia" instead of being grouped together under a set of definitions labeled "US Minor Outlying Islands", as would be expected by being part of the "country" identified by the 2-letter country code "UM" for "US minor outlying islands" with respect to ISO 3166. Zone Pacific/Midway is defined in file "tzdata/northamerica" as part of the United States definitions therein instead of in file "tzdata/australasia" along with zones Pacific/Johnston and Pacific/Wake as part of a set of definitions labeled "US Minor Outlying Islands" as would be indicated by being part of the country identified by the 2-letter country code "UM" for "US minor outlying islands" with respect to ISO 3166. KP Korea (North) and KR Korea (South) Zones Asia/Pyongyang and Asia/Seoul are defined in file "tzdata/asia" as part of the "Korea" definitions therein, but there should be separate sets of Korea (North) definitions, which would include zone Asia/Pyongyang, and Korea (South) definitions, which would include zone Asia/Seoul. This is what separate 2-letter country codes "KP" for "Korea (North)" and "KR" for "Korea (South)" indicate with respect to ISO 3166. Dave Skinner dave@kirdu.jpl.nasa.gov