The reason I put that code in was because I actually had the code running on a machine that I couldn't put the /etc/zoneinfo directory on. And, for a couple of days, I got a first hand look at what happens when things are 8 hours off. With the current code, it would require a major kernel problem to be more than an hour off. Isn't that worth having? Well, I don't know that it's that much better to be one hour off than 8 hours off. Also, there are plenty of files that, if missing or inaccessible, will cause UNIX some amount of distress; I'm not sure the time zone files are worth singling out. (E.g., why not put code into "init" so that the system will work even if "getty" is missing or won't work? Why not put code into the kernel to try opening "/dev/console" and running "/bin/sh" if "/etc/init" can't be found?) In Olson's scheme, if the time zone files are inaccessible, it will be pretty obvious and the administrator will find those files, by hook or by crook. I don't consider it that likely that they'd be missing or inaccessible, either.