[tz] need testing for new tzdb release for Brazil changes

[Brian Inglis]

On 2019-05-27 12:02, Paul Eggert wrote:
> Here is one longstanding issue that I would like to see progress on:
> https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/tzupdater-readme-136440.html#issues
> That is, Oracle TZUpdater fails to handle the forms of DST currently used in
> Ireland and Morocco, and historically used in Czechoslovakia, Japan and Namibia.
> Although this was reported as a P3 (major loss of function) bug in January 2018
> <https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8195595>, I am not plugged into the
> JDK development effort and don't know what sort of progress is being made here.
> 
> Ramanand, you're assigned that bug report. What's the status of the fix for this
> issue, and of testing the fix? Have you tested with data taken from the current
> tzdb development version? Although I doubt whether the Brazil changes themselves
> will cause problems with TZUpdater I've been surprised in the past, and also the
> next release will contain changes not related to Brazil, so I'd appreciate some
> feedback here.

Nothing has happened in the last 12 months, and recent advice in the bug report
is still to use the rearguard workaround.

Businesses are unlikely to spend money on a risky software update which requires
expensive testing in house and by their downstream customers, while docs for a
process workaround will suffice for the subset of customers who want to perform
their own Java tz updates, perhaps from the dev repo.

Some customer account holder, who pays a lot to Oracle for Java support, would
have to push their Oracle account manager to have Oracle development work on this.

[If Oracle open sourced their tzupdater, some customer volunteer with the need
could probably provide a patch quickly.]

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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