[tz] suggestion: split "backward" into "backward" and "deprecated"

Andrew Gierth andrew at tao11.riddles.org.uk
Tue May 5 00:26:22 UTC 2020


>>>>> "Brian" == Brian Inglis <Brian.Inglis at SystematicSw.ab.ca> writes:

 >> (One further exception should be made: the link from Etc/UTC to UTC
 >> is in widespread use and should probably be moved to "etcetera"
 >> alongside the similar "GMT" link. Otherwise it should stay in
 >> "backward". This change already exists in FreeBSD, where all "GMT"
 >> defaults have been changed to "UTC" at some point.)

 Brian> It is not clear what you mean by saying FreeBSD changed GMT
 Brian> defaults to UTC at some point.

I mean that where the tzcode uses "GMT" as a default zone name or
abbreviation in the absence of data, FreeBSD uses "UTC" (and has since
2004).

e.g. with no /etc/localtime file,

% env -u TZ date
Tue  5 May 2020 00:00:37 UTC

(To the best of my knowledge there are no reference clocks available to
which one could synchronize in order to use a mean solar time, so your
argument seems to me to support this choice.)

-- 
Andrew.


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