Re: Question about reproducibility tests timezone format
Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org> writes:
> Can you think of any way that using the Etc/GMT+12 and Etc/GMT-14 syntax
> would cause any *problems*?
Yes: Etc/GMT+12 and Etc/GMT-14 generate different time zone abbreviations.
% env TZ=Etc/GMT+12 date
Thu Oct 2 05:31:10 AM -12 2025
% env TZ=Etc/GMT-14 date
Fri Oct 3 07:31:14 AM +14 2025
The point of using GMT+12 and GMT-12 is that they keep the same
(incorrect, but it doesn't really matter for this purpose) time zone
abbreviation for reproducibility testing:
% env TZ=GMT+12 date
Thu Oct 2 05:32:09 AM GMT 2025
% env TZ=GMT-12 date
Fri Oct 3 05:32:12 AM GMT 2025
Otherwise, you may get spurious reproducibility failures due to the
changed time zone abbreviation.
I don't believe there is a mechanism to force the same time zone
abbreviation other than usig POSIX rule-based zones.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
Reply to: