Should time zone info files be tagged with the tzdata version number?

Jonathan Leffler jonathan.leffler at gmail.com
Sun Nov 25 16:55:29 UTC 2007


On Nov 25, 2007 8:44 AM, Paul Eggert <eggert at cs.ucla.edu> wrote:

> "Jonathan Leffler" <jonathan.leffler at gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Has anyone ever suggested embedding the version number of the time zone
> data
> > files (eg "2007i") into that space, so that you can tell immediately
> where
> > the data comes from when looking at the file?
>
> Not that I know of.  But I'm not sure it's worth the hassle, as people
> make changes to the source files on their own, and if that happens
> the "version number" in the output will be unreliable.
>

They do?  Well, yes, they probably do.  OK - fair enough.  I may end up
putting some version information in the file along the lines I suggested for
the system I'm working towards.  Or it may become moot if I end up storing
the time zone information directly in the database - though since there are
client applications as well as the server to worry about, I am thinking it
will be better to keep the data out of the database.  (That said, the
transactional capability of the database has its advantages for changing
versions of the time zone information.)

Are there any thoughts anywhere about using those 15 zero bytes for any
purpose that I'm likely to run foul of?  I know I could run foul of a change
at any time, but has any such use been mooted as a possibility at this
point?

-- 
Jonathan Leffler <jonathan.leffler at gmail.com>  #include <disclaimer.h>
Guardian of DBD::Informix - v2007.0914 - http://dbi.perl.org
"Blessed are we who can laugh at ourselves, for we shall never cease to be
amused."
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