touch-packages team mailing list archive

[Ben Humpert <1325949@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Please do not change to WONTFIX.

# We use POSIX-style signs in the Zone names and the output abbreviations,
# even though this is the opposite of what many people expect.
# POSIX has positive signs west of Greenwich, but many people expect
# positive signs east of Greenwich.  For example, TZ='Etc/GMT+4' uses
# the abbreviation "GMT+4" and corresponds to 4 hours behind UT
# (i.e. west of Greenwich) even though many people would expect it to
# mean 4 hours ahead of UT (i.e. east of Greenwich).

The thing is, it is not about "what many people expect". It is about the
international standard and if POSIX does not handle it correctly POSIX
has to be changed. POSIX does not follow the international standard
which clearly says XXX+1 means one hour ahead of XXX. This is definied
in international ISO norm, european EN norm and german DIN norm and
there are definitely many other countries using the well-known ISO norm
too.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1325949

Title:
  timezone selections in ETC are confusing / inverted

Status in tzdata package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in tzdata package in Debian:
  New

Bug description:
  Looks like GMT[+-}<number> timezones have signs swapped.

  My local timezone is Europe/Tallinn

  When timezone is set to "Europe/Tallinn", everything is ok:
  # dpkg-reconfigure tzdata -> Europe/Tallinn
  # date
  Tue Jun  3 14:34:21 EEST 2014

  # date +%z
  +0300

  # date -u
  Tue Jun  3 11:34:59 UTC 2014

  I need to set timezone to GMT+2, to avoid dailight savings time.
  When I set timezone to "GMT+2", things fall apart. Timezone is shown GMT+2/GMT-2. Clock is set to GMT-2.
  # dpkg-reconfigure tzdata -> Etc/GMT+2

  # date
  Tue Jun  3 09:36:21 GMT+2 2014

  # date +%z
  -0200

  # date -u
  Tue Jun  3 11:37:43 UTC 2014

  When I set timezone to "GMT-2", then it's turned around. Timezone is shown GMT-2/GMT+2. Clock is set to GMT+2.
  #dpkg-reconfigure tzdata -> Etc/GMT-2

  # date
  Tue Jun  3 13:39:35 GMT-2 2014

  # date +%z
  +0200

  # date -u
  Tue Jun  3 11:39:56 UTC 2014

  # lsb_release -rd
  Description:    Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
  Release:        12.04

  # apt-cache policy tzdata
  tzdata:
    Installed: 2014c-0ubuntu0.12.04
    Candidate: 2014c-0ubuntu0.12.04
    Version table:
   *** 2014c-0ubuntu0.12.04 0
          500 http://ee.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main amd64 Packages
          100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
       2012e-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 0
          500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security/main amd64 Packages
       2012b-1 0
          500 http://ee.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages

  # apt-get update
  # apt-get upgrade
  Reading package lists... Done
  Building dependency tree
  Reading state information... Done
  0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

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