Re: storing TZ along timestamps

On May 27, 2011, at 1:43 PM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:

> Right now we rely on the tzdata files on disk for things like
> pg_timezone_names and other accesses of TZ data; so the files are the
> authoritative source of TZ info. So we need to ensure that whenever the
> files are updated, the catalogs are updated as well.
> I think we could make this work if we "refreshed" the catalog from the
> files on SIGHUP if the directory changes (say, a new timezone is
> created). Note that I am currently proposing to store only the zone
> names in the catalog, not the full TZ data.
>
> Are there objections to the general idea? If not, I'll flesh a more
> complete proposal.

I like it, but what do you do when a TZ has been renamed or has ceased to exist. Or, worse, existed last week, so last week's dates might still use it, but next week's must not?

Best,

David