[tz] tabs vs spaces

Guy Harris guy at alum.mit.edu
Thu May 2 04:45:08 UTC 2013


On May 1, 2013, at 9:09 PM, Tobias Conradi <mail.2012 at tobiasconradi.com> wrote:

> I came from random832 at fastmail.us:
> 
> "Tokens in the timezone files are separated by _any whitespace_." and
> re-used the any.
> 
> I wanted to say "And I assume not /every/ 'any white space' separates tokens."
> 
> I had in mind the spaces in the comment field:
> 
> ftp://ftp.iana.org/tz/data/zone.tab
> 
> "Rothera Station, Adelaide Island"

...which isn't a timezone file.

That file has a different syntax, as described in the leading comment:

	# Columns are separated by a single tab.

In timezone files, none of the columns may contain whitespace, so an arbitrary string of white space (other than NL) separates columns.


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