touch-packages team mailing list archive

[Adam Conrad <adconrad@xxxxxxx>]

I have no intention of inventing a time machine and "fixing" POSIX.
Please don't use the Etc/* timezones if the inverted offsets confuse
you, there are many other ways to get at the timezones in human-friendly
and less mind-bending ways.

** Changed in: tzdata (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Medium => Wishlist

** Summary changed:

- timezone selections in ETC are confusing / inverted
+ Add note to Debconf template about unintuitive inverted Etc/GMT offsets

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

Title:
  Add note to Debconf template about unintuitive inverted Etc/GMT
  offsets

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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