Re: Add FET to Default and Europe.txt

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Marc Balmer <marc(at)msys(dot)ch>, Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us>
Cc: pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Add FET to Default and Europe.txt
Date: 2012-10-06 21:40:34
Message-ID: 9636.1349559634@sss.pgh.pa.us
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I wrote:
> What the README file actually suggests is that periodically we should
> re-evaluate the set of default abbreviations.

I looked through the diffs between the 2005m Olson time zone files
(which is what we were using at the time the tznames files were created)
and current. There are several issues that we need to deal with,
I think.

The biggest issue is that all of Russia has apparently (1) abandoned
daylight-savings time changes, and (2) settled on new "standard time"
zones that match up with their old DST times! For example we've got

*************** Zone Europe/Moscow 2:30:20 - LMT 1880
*** 1951,1967 ****
2:00 - EET 1930 Jun 21
3:00 Russia MSK/MSD 1991 Mar 31 2:00s
2:00 Russia EE%sT 1992 Jan 19 2:00s
! 3:00 Russia MSK/MSD
#
# From Oscar van Vlijmen (2001-08-25): [This region consists of]
# Samarskaya oblast', Udmyrtskaya respublika
Zone Europe/Samara 3:20:36 - LMT 1919 Jul 1 2:00
! 3:00 - KUYT 1930 Jun 21 # Kuybyshev
! 4:00 Russia KUY%sT 1989 Mar 26 2:00s
3:00 Russia KUY%sT 1991 Mar 31 2:00s
2:00 Russia KUY%sT 1991 Sep 29 2:00s
3:00 - KUYT 1991 Oct 20 3:00
! 4:00 Russia SAM%sT # Samara Time
#
# From Oscar van Vlijmen (2001-08-25): [This region consists of]
# Respublika Bashkortostan, Komi-Permyatskij avtonomnyj okrug,
--- 2120,2155 ----
2:00 - EET 1930 Jun 21
3:00 Russia MSK/MSD 1991 Mar 31 2:00s
2:00 Russia EE%sT 1992 Jan 19 2:00s
! 3:00 Russia MSK/MSD 2011 Mar 27 2:00s
! 4:00 - MSK
! #
! # Astrakhanskaya oblast', Kirovskaya oblast', Saratovskaya oblast',
! # Volgogradskaya oblast'. Shanks & Pottenger say Kirov is still at +0400
! # but Wikipedia (2006-05-09) says +0300. Perhaps it switched after the
! # others? But we have no data.
! Zone Europe/Volgograd 2:57:40 - LMT 1920 Jan 3
! 3:00 - TSAT 1925 Apr 6 # Tsaritsyn Time
! 3:00 - STAT 1930 Jun 21 # Stalingrad Time
! 4:00 - STAT 1961 Nov 11
! 4:00 Russia VOL%sT 1989 Mar 26 2:00s # Volgograd T
! 3:00 Russia VOL%sT 1991 Mar 31 2:00s
! 4:00 - VOLT 1992 Mar 29 2:00s
! 3:00 Russia VOL%sT 2011 Mar 27 2:00s
! 4:00 - VOLT
#
# From Oscar van Vlijmen (2001-08-25): [This region consists of]
# Samarskaya oblast', Udmyrtskaya respublika
Zone Europe/Samara 3:20:36 - LMT 1919 Jul 1 2:00
! 3:00 - SAMT 1930 Jun 21
! 4:00 - SAMT 1935 Jan 27
! 4:00 Russia KUY%sT 1989 Mar 26 2:00s # Kuybyshev
3:00 Russia KUY%sT 1991 Mar 31 2:00s
2:00 Russia KUY%sT 1991 Sep 29 2:00s
3:00 - KUYT 1991 Oct 20 3:00
! 4:00 Russia SAM%sT 2010 Mar 28 2:00s # Samara Time
! 3:00 Russia SAM%sT 2011 Mar 27 2:00s
! 4:00 - SAMT
!
#
# From Oscar van Vlijmen (2001-08-25): [This region consists of]
# Respublika Bashkortostan, Komi-Permyatskij avtonomnyj okrug,

Thus for example "MSK" apparently now means GMT+4 not GMT+3. We can
change the tznames entry for that, but should we get rid of "MSD"
entirely? Some input from the Russians on this list would be helpful.

Lesser issues:

* The FET changes you noted, which seem to be related to the whole
Russian change.

* Mongolia seems to have moved an hour east too, but they kept summer
time:

*** 1268,1278 ****
Zone Asia/Choibalsan 7:38:00 - LMT 1905 Aug
7:00 - ULAT 1978
8:00 - ULAT 1983 Apr
! 9:00 Mongol CHO%sT # Choibalsan Time

# Nepal
# Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]
--- 1783,1794 ----
Zone Asia/Choibalsan 7:38:00 - LMT 1905 Aug
7:00 - ULAT 1978
8:00 - ULAT 1983 Apr
! 9:00 Mongol CHO%sT 2008 Mar 31 # Choibalsan Time
! 8:00 Mongol CHO%sT

# Nepal
# Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL]

* MAWT (Antarctica/Mawson) now means GMT+5 not GMT+6, and
Antarctica/Macquarie has adopted its very own zone name MIST. It looks
from the Olson database as though all of the Australian Antarctic
stations have changed their clocks from time to time without changing
the zone abbreviations they use. I'm inclined to mark all of them with
a cautionary note that the abbreviation has meant different things in
the past.

* Bangladesh now observes summer time, with abbreviation BDST. The
issue that this poses is that it conflicts with the existing Default
entry for British Double Summer Time, an acronym that hasn't been in use
since 1947. I'm inclined to think we should retire that one and give
the Default slot to Bangladesh Summer Time.

* Samoa, which decided to move themselves across the date line last
year, are now using WST and WSDT for GMT+13 and GMT+14. This conflicts
with Australia's use of WST for GMT+8. Fortunately we don't seem to
have ever adopted the latter into the Default list.

* Tokelau also moved across the date line, and we didn't update their
TKT entry for that.

* Some parts of Argentina are now using WART/WARST (Western Argentina)
zone names. This doesn't appear to conflict with anything so we might
as well adopt it into Default.

Comments?

regards, tom lane

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