ISO 3166 and the "tz" Database

[Dave Skinner]

First of all, in case you were not aware of the fact,
3 of the 238 different ISO 3166 "countries" listed in
file "tzdata/iso3166.tab" have no corresponding zone
in the "tz" database.  They are


BV      Bouvet Island
HM      Heard Island & McDonald Islands
TP      East Timor


Bouvet Island is described in file "tzdata/antarctica" as


# Norway - territories
# Bouvet (uninhabited)


Heard Island & McDonald Islands is described in file
"tzdata/antarctica" as


# Australia - territories
# Heard Island, McDonald Islands


No other information about Heard Island & McDonald Islands
is provided.

As for "East Timor", it is an area that both Indonesia and
Portugal claim sovereignty over which is not recognized by
the United Nations, or so says the 1996 edition of the CIA
World Factbook.  I can find no reference to "Timor", let
alone "East Timor", in any of the "tzdata/*" files except,
of course, "tzdata/iso3166.tab".


Next, if the "tz" database is REALLY going to adhere to
ISO 3166, then the definitions of the various zones should
be grouped by the "countries" defined therein.  Currently,
this is not the case.

The following is a complete list of the ISO 3166 countries
that have multiple zone entries in the "tz" database.


AQ      Antarctica
AR      Argentina
AU      Australia
BR      Brazil
CA      Canada
CL      Chile
CN      China
EC      Ecuador
ES      Spain
FM      Micronesia
GB      Britain (UK)
GL      Greenland
ID      Indonesia
IL      Israel
JP      Japan
KI      Kiribati
KZ      Kazakhstan
MH      Marshall Islands
ML      Mali
MX      Mexico
MY      Malaysia
NZ      New Zealand
PF      French Polynesia
PT      Portugal
RU      Russia
SJ      Svalbard & Jan Mayen
UA      Ukraine
UM      US minor outlying islands
US      United States
ZR      Zaire


There are 30 of them.  As reported in my most recent
previous email, 23 of these "countries" currently have
multiple internal time zones, i.e. multiple areas that
differ in how and when they observe the time that they do,
but that is irrelevent here.

By inspection, I found that the country groupings in the
following five continent files


tzdata/antarctica
tzdata/asia
tzdata/australasia
tzdata/europe
tzdata/northamerica


do not, in general, follow the ISO 3166 groupings identified
in file "tzdata/zone.tab" from which the above list was
extracted.  In particular, the following differences have
been identified.


AQ	Antarctica

Zone Indian/Kerguelen, that is defined in file
"tzdata/antarctica" as part of the Antarctica definitions
therein, is part of the "country" identified by the 2-letter
country code "TF" for "French Southern & Antarctic Lands"
with respect to ISO 3166, which does not appear in the above
list.


CN	China

China is identified as the "People's Republic of China"
in file "tzdata/asia".  This compares to just "China" with
respect to ISO 3166.


GB	Britain (UK)

Great Britain is identified as "United Kingdom" in file
"tzdata/europe".  This compares to "Britain (UK)" with
respect to ISO 3166.

Zone Europe/Dublin, that is defined in file "tzdata/europe"
as part of the so-called "United Kingdom" definitions therein,
is part if the country identified by the 2-letter country
code "IE" for "Ireland" with respect to ISO 3166, which does
not appear in the above list.


GL	Greenland

Zones America/Thule, America/Godthab, and America/Scoresbysund,
that are defined in file "tzdata/europe" as part of the
Denmark definitions therein, are part of the "country"
identified by the 2-letter country code "GL" for "Greenland"
with respect to ISO 3166.

Zone Atlantic/Faeroe, that is defined in file "tzdata/europe"
as part of the Denmark definitions therein, is part of the
"country" identified by the 2-letter country code "FO" for
"Faeroe Islands" with respect to ISO 3166, which does not
appear in the above list.

Zone Europe/Copenhagen, that is defined in file "tzdata/europe"
as part of the Denmark definitions therein, is part of the
country of "Denmark" with its 2-letter country code "DK", with
respect to ISO 3166, which does not appear in the above list.


IL	Israel

Zone Asia/Gaza is defined in file "tzdata/asia" as part of
a separate set of definitions for "Palestine" therein instead
of as part of the corresponding Israel definitions.  Yet,
Asia/Gaza is part of the country identified by the 2-letter
country code "IL" for "Israel" with respect to ISO 3166.


SJ	Svalbard & Jan Mayen

Zone Atlantic/Jan_Mayen, that is defined in file "tzdata/europe"
as part of the Norway definitions therein, is part of the
"country" identified by the 2-letter country code "SJ" for
"Svalbard & Jan Mayen" with respect to ISO 3166.

Zone Arctic/Longyearbyen, that is linked to Europe/Oslo in
file "tzdata/europe" as part of the Norway definitions therein,
is part of the "country" identified by the 2-letter country
code "SJ" for "Svalbard & Jan Mayen" with respect to ISO 3166.

Zone Europe/Oslo, that is defined in file "tzdata/europe" as
part of the Norway definitions therein, is part of the country
of Norway with its 2-letter country code "NO" with respect to
ISO 3166, which does not appear in the above list.


UM	US minor outlying islands

Zones Pacific/Johnston and Pacific/Wake are individually defined
in file "tzdata/australasia" instead of being grouped together
under a set of definitions labeled "US Minor Outlying Islands",
as would be expected by being part of the "country" identified
by the 2-letter country code "UM" for "US minor outlying islands"
with respect to ISO 3166.

Zone Pacific/Midway is defined in file "tzdata/northamerica" as
part of the United States definitions therein instead of in file
"tzdata/australasia" along with zones Pacific/Johnston and
Pacific/Wake as part of a set of definitions labeled "US Minor
Outlying Islands" as would be indicated by being part of the
country identified by the 2-letter country code "UM" for
"US minor outlying islands" with respect to ISO 3166.


KP	Korea (North) and
KR	Korea (South)

Zones Asia/Pyongyang and Asia/Seoul are defined in file
"tzdata/asia" as part of the "Korea" definitions therein, but
there should be separate sets of Korea (North) definitions,
which would include zone Asia/Pyongyang, and Korea (South)
definitions, which would include zone Asia/Seoul.  This is what
separate 2-letter country codes "KP" for "Korea (North)" and
"KR" for "Korea (South)" indicate with respect to ISO 3166.


Dave Skinner
dave at kirdu.jpl.nasa.gov