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Re: Removing locale timezone information


keld@keldix.com wrote:
I thing tz data changes are not very frequent

No, they're reasonably common: about ten times a year. For example, yesterday North Korea announced they're changing to +0830 on August 15 and we'll generate a new tzdata release before then. We can't reasonably expect glibc releases that often or so quickly.

Quick turnaround is important here. For example, between the time that a new tzdata release is announced, and the time my Ubuntu desktop is automatically updated with the new data, can be a matter of hours. (I'm not doing anything special; I'm just an ordinary Ubuntu user in this regard.) This is helpful becausee countries sometimes don't give us much notice. Again, not something suited to glibc's schedule.

are Olson tzdata used in GNU interfaces?

Yes, e.g., in strftime, localtime_r, and tzset.

> Was there a differnce between German
> an Swiss timezones? Something with Switzerland not being EU?

Yes, German and Swiss daylight-saving rules disagreed in 1980, and BÃsingen (which is a German enclave surrounded by the Swiss canton Shaffhausen) used Swiss rules.

> Both your examples are for countries with two timezones

Actually more than two, depending on which version of tzdata you're using. China has also had Asia/Chongqing, Asia/Harbin, and Asia/Kashgar in past versions. It may well have more than two in the future.

> I guess that one of them are the one that the majority will use.

True for China and Germany today, but not for the US, Canada, or Russia. And in several other countries (Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, ...) a significant minority of users won't want the majority's preference. We're talking about a lot of users here, not just a few exceptional cases.


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