Bug#57456: libc6: setting timezone fails horribly

[Paul Slootman <paul@wau.mis.ah.nl>]

Package: libc6
Version: 2.1.2-12
Severity: important

I had the following symlink:

$ ls -l /etc/localtime 
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           42 Jan 19 16:03 /etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/posix/Europe/Amsterdam

A previous upgrade left me without a /etc/localtime for some reason,
which is why I created the symlink.

Now, when upgrading libc6 to 2.1.2-12 from -11, tzconfig was run:


: Preparing to replace libc6 2.1.2-11 (using .../libc6_2.1.2-12_i386.deb) ...
: Unpacking replacement libc6 ...
: Setting up libc6 (2.1.2-12) ...
: Running 'tzconfig' to set this system's timezone.
: 
: Please enter the number of the geographic area in which you live:
: 
: 
:         1) Africa                       7) Australia
: 
:         2) America                      8) Europe
: 
:         3) US time zones                9) Indian Ocean
: 
:         4) Canada time zones            10) Pacific Ocean
: 
:         5) Asia                         11) Use System V style time zones
: 
:         6) Atlantic Ocean               12) None of the above
: 
: 
: 
: Then you will be shown a list of cities which represent the time zone
: in which they are located. You should choose a city in your time zone.
: 
: Number: 8
: 
: Amsterdam Andorra Athens Belfast Belgrade Berlin Bratislava Brussels
: Bucharest Budapest Chisinau Copenhagen Dublin Gibraltar Helsinki Istanbul
: Kaliningrad Kiev Lisbon Ljubljana London Luxembourg Madrid Malta Minsk
: Monaco Moscow Oslo Paris Prague Riga Rome Samara San_Marino Sarajevo
: Simferopol Skopje Sofia Stockholm Tallinn Tirane Tiraspol Uzhgorod Vaduz
: Vatican Vienna Vilnius Warsaw Zagreb Zaporozhye Zurich
: 
: Please enter the name of one of these cities or zones
: You just need to type enough letters to resolve ambiguities
: Press Enter to view all of them again
: Name: [] Amsterdam
: Your default time zone is set to 'Europe/Amsterdam'.
: Local time is now:      Mon Jan 31 10:14:46 CET 2000.
: Universal Time is now:  Mon Jan 31 09:14:46 UTC 2000.
: Current default timezone: 'Factory'.
:    Local time is now:      Mon Jan 31 09:14:46 Local time zone must be set--see zic manual page 2000.
:    Universal Time is now:  Mon Jan 31 09:14:46 UTC 2000.
: Run 'tzconfig' if you wish to change it.


Note how first it's OK, the local time is reported correctly.
Then it's set to "Factory" ?!  Additionally, I don't see what
"zic" has to do with _setting_ the timezone.

This is seriously screwy, and must be fixed.


Thanks,
Paul Slootman

-- System Information
Debian Release: potato
Kernel Version: Linux pcpaul 2.2.12 #1 Thu Aug 26 10:01:28 CEST 1999 i686 unknown

Versions of the packages libc6 depends on:
ii  ldso           1.9.11-5       The Linux dynamic linker, library and utilit