[tz] macOS implements Links with file copies?

Tom Lane tgl at sss.pgh.pa.us
Sat Feb 13 16:55:45 UTC 2021


scs at eskimo.com (Steve Summit) writes:
> What's fascinating to me is that they are there at all.  I'm a
> foot-dragging Luddite who rarely accepts any of the upgrades that
> vendors push at me -- and yet now that I look, I've got those
> same three fresh tz trees sitting there on my Mac, too, one from
> as recently as three weeks ago.

> Did everybody else know this?  Apologies for making a big deal
> out of it if everybody else already knew this.  Evidently OTA
> is chugging away there quietly in the background, upgrading
> tzdata completely transparently.

If you look in System Preferences -> Software Update -> Advanced, you'll
find a checkbox "Install system data files and security updates", which
is generally on even if you don't have automatic software update enabled.
I believe that's what authorizes auto-installation of tzdata updates,
along with lists of trusted website root certificates, CRLs, antivirus
patterns, and the like.

> Anybody know if there's a connection between OTA's
> tzdata distribution mechanism, and TZDIST?  I'm guessing not.
> (But now I'm wondering if the reason I haven't heard much about
> TZDIST lately is that OTA has rendered it obsolete, or something.)

I'm pretty certain Deborah is just referring to Apple's proprietary
software update channel.

			regards, tom lane


More information about the tz mailing list