[tz] Commentary-only releases - let's not

[Tim Parenti]

On Fri, 1 Jul 2022 at 00:00, Philip Paeps via tz <tz at iana.org> wrote:

> As Tom points out, we actually have a fairly predictable schedule today:
> bursts of releases around the silly seasons in March and October and one
> or two releases at other times.  I'm not too worried about our release
> machinery atrophying.
>

And, even if we go an entire "season" without zone changes, leap second
data expires twice-yearly as well whether there's a leap-second or not:

Even if there are no zone changes in the Mar/Apr season, we would still
need a release around May to incorporate the Jan announcement regarding a
possible Jun leap-second.
Even if there are no zone changes in the Sep/Oct season, we would still
need a release around Nov to incorporate the Jul announcement regarding a
possible Dec leap-second.

So the point about avoiding atrophy is well-taken, but I don't foresee us
dipping below a minimum of two releases a year.  And because of the above,
I also don't see the need to impose any further arbitrary schedule on
releases either.


> Unfortunately, the nature of the data we record means we'll always have
> to make releases on short notice.


Yup, no avoiding that.

--
Tim Parenti


On Fri, 1 Jul 2022 at 00:22, Paul Eggert via tz <tz at iana.org> wrote:

> On 6/30/22 22:13, Tom Lane via tz wrote:
> > IIUC the reason
> > for bundling them is to cover the case where a new tzdata
> > release requires new tzcode.
>
> Yes, in the old days it was never entirely clear what the relationship
> was between tzdata1997e and tzcode1997e as the two release numbers came
> from separate lines of development. Now, it's obvious. Also, using the
> same version number simplifies tarball generation.
>
> Some of this was discussed here:
>
> https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/2012-September/thread.html#18258
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/attachments/20220701/4d367caa/attachment.html>