"Paul" == Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> writes:
Or they can trivially patch the build system not to install backward zones.
Well, there used to be a build option for that in the base system, but somebody just took it out...
Easy enough to put back if someone yells about it.
Paul> Might make sense to put it back in (if only for compatibility Paul> with older FreeBSD systems where TZ='W-SU' gave you UTC :-). But the real point here is that we _want_ some of the backward zones - especially the ones that users may have legitimately configured with tzsetup (which reads zone.tab / zone1970.tab) in the past but which got renamed (as in the recent example of America/Godthab). The problem right now is that there isn't a way to conveniently distinguish those zones from the ones that just get in the way and cause confusion. This is why my proposal retains in the "backward" file every zone that has ever been in zone.tab. -- Andrew.