[tz] Support for the IANA database in the Python standard library

Paul Eggert eggert at cs.ucla.edu
Tue Feb 25 22:45:54 UTC 2020


On 2/25/20 1:38 PM, Paul Ganssle wrote:
> 
> I sent out the proposal today, discussion is happening on the Python 
> discourse: https://discuss.python.org/t/3468

A few comments, which you're welcome to pass on to that forum:

* Having global state can lead to problems (even in single-threaded 
apps), and this proposal has global state in the implementation of the 
'set_tzpath' function. Instead of that function, how about an optional 
argument to the ZoneInfo constructors? The optional argument would 
specify the path for apps that don't want the default path. Then apps 
wouldn't need set_tzpath.

* The proposal is silent on the issue of what happens during updates to 
tzdata files while a Python program is running. Should this update be 
reflected immediately in all Python-level calls? Should it wait until 
the next call to ZoneInfo on the affected zone, which means that zones 
are not immutable? Should the update be ignored and the program proceed 
as if the update hasn't happened? Or are all these valid implementations 
of the spec? Whichever you decide, the decision should be written down 
so that developers are put on notice.

* How do I get tzdata-based leap second support, if I want it? Or are 
leap seconds specifically out of scope?

* You might want to mention TZDIST (RFC 7808) as an alternative source 
for tzdata that a Python implementation could use instead of TZif files 
in a local filesystem.


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