Re: GNU libc
In article <19970225110218.40108@sw.ods.com>, David Engel wrote:
>
>The same holds true for the timezone. However, in this case, I do
>know that several data files in the timezone package are currently
>wrong, but are correct in the glibc timezones package.
>
The data files are not wrong. According to the upstream documentation, there
are two ways to generate them: one is POSIX-conformant but wrong and one is
"right" (meaning it gives the actual time as defined by the International
Earth Rotation Service:
# The International Earth Rotation Service periodically uses leap seconds
# to keep UTC to within 0.9 s of TAI (atomic time); see
# Terry J Quinn, The BIPM and the accurate measure of time,
# Proc IEEE 79, 7 (July 1991), 894-905.
POSIX ignores the leap second issue and therefore the POSIX-conformant time is
wrong.
I had generated POSIX-conformant data files previously but I switched to the
"right" ones in the latest release. I did not realize the consequences this
change had for mirrors. As I am unsure of whether the "right" thing is the
good one, I can revert to the old behavior if that is preferred.
In any case, it seems that the timezone package could be obsoleted by the new
timezones one which comes with glibc. Both use exactly the same upstream
source, so it makes not much sense to keep both (out of sync...)
I think David Engel and I should agree on which package to keep.
Regards,
Fernando.
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