[tz] NIST leap-second file not yet updated

Paul_Koning at dell.com Paul_Koning at dell.com
Mon Feb 15 18:20:00 UTC 2016


> On Feb 15, 2016, at 12:49 PM, Steve Allen <sla at ucolick.org> wrote:
> 
> On Mon 2016-02-15T12:14:52 -0500, Tim Parenti hath writ:
>> I prepared the attached patch which uses the file from IERS shortly
>> after the 2016-01-11 announcement, but was sitting on it while we
>> waited for NIST, since the conversation at the time seemed to indicate
>> that NIST was our preferred source.  I think, though, that since IERS
>> actually decides the leap seconds and seems to be updating their file
>> more promptly, it might be worthwhile to consider switching to IERS as
>> our canonical source for this file.
> 
> That makes sense.  Announcing the leap seconds is part of the charter
> of the IERS, and staff there are on public record as having interest
> in disseminating the information.  It is not part of the charter of
> NIST, and staff there are on public record as not wanting leap seconds
> to exist.

I'll second that.  And even if it were part of the NIST charter, NIST would only be a secondary source, not the primary source.  IERS is the originator of the data; why use a middleman?

If we currently have anything saying that we use any source other than IERS as the supplier of leap second data, we should fix that.

	paul


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