[tz] Add option to act like global-tz

[Bradley White]

On Tue, Aug 16, 2022 at 8:51 PM Paul Eggert <eggert at cs.ucla.edu> wrote:

> On 8/16/22 14:57, Bradley White wrote:
> > $ TZ=<path-to-standard>/Africa/Freetown date -d @1660625107
> > Tue Aug 16 04:45:07 GMT 2022
> > $ TZ=<path-to-packrat>/Africa/Freetown date -d @1660625107
> > Tue Aug 16 05:05:07 +01 2022
>
> The Africa/Freetown glitch was introduced in 2022a when fixing other
> problems with Sierra Leone.
>
> I installed into the development repository the attached patch to
> 'backzone' to fix these glitches.
>
> Because this patch affects only 'backzone', it doesn't affect any
> timestamps in the default build.


The sense I'm getting from discussions on the backzone issue is that many
corporations and redistributors will become "PACKRAT"s when moving to
2022b, if only to provide historical consistency (and independently of what
anyone considers historical accuracy).  The "global-tz" advocates certainly
fall into that category.

In that light, you might reconsider the concept of a "default build".  It
is just one choice, and one which may not be used by the majority of
consumers.

Concretely, I suggest that backzone changes affecting current timestamps
(like the Africa/Freetown case above) be treated with the same release
expediency that would be afforded to similar changes in the "default" data.
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