[tz] Extend POSIX TZ to allow transition times outside 00-24 range, permanent DST
Paul Eggert
eggert at cs.ucla.edu
Mon Jun 3 20:34:38 UTC 2019
I recently proposed extending the POSIX spec for TZ strings. Please see:
http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=1252
This proposal is a modest one, as it doesn't specify TZ strings like
'America/Los_Angeles'. Instead it merely specifies the strings generated
by zic and stored into TZif files. This includes strings like
'<-03>3<-02>,M3.5.0/-2,M10.5.0/-1' which use times of day outside the
00-24 range, and strings like 'EST5EDT,0/0,J365/25' that represent
permanent daylight saving time.
This extension to POSIX TZ strings has already been specified in
Internet RFC 8536 section 3.3.1
<https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8536#page-13> and I think it's a good
idea to backport the extension to POSIX itself, as this will bless the
common practice of taking the last line of a TZif file and using it as a
TZ string on small platforms that lack room to store the TZif files.
Please feel free to comment at austingroupbugs.net.
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