Re: Data updates in debian packages
On 30.10.2016 04:42, Paul Wise wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 30, 2016 at 4:36 AM, Ole Streicher wrote:
>
>> The canonical source for leap seconds is the IERS. Our current plan was
>> to take the leap second list from there and build our package from this
>> (as it is done in the casacore-data upstream). This guaranteed that we
>> always have the actual definition (... as long as we do our updated
>> package ASAP).
>>
>> When we switch that to tzdata, then we get the leap second from a place
>> that is not strictly the original source, but may have some delay: first
>> the tzdata upstream package needs to be updated, and then it needs to be
>> packaged (... and possibly backported).
>>
>> So my question is: how safe is it to assum that this whole process is
>> quick (let's say: a few weeks)? If someone works later on Stretch and
>> has an outdated leap second, this could cause problems. Especially if he
>> has no direct information about the actuality of the leap second
>> definition (which he would have in the case of an leap second package
>> taking the value directly from IERS -- we could use the date of the
>> announcement as version number there).
>
> Where does the IERS data come from?
IERS is the instance which actually decides about the leap second,
namely by this file:
ftp://hpiers.obspm.fr/iers/bul/bulc/bulletinc.dat
I couldn't find the original source now, but see f.e. wikipedia: "Among
its other functions, the IERS is responsible for announcing leap seconds."
> I think the tzdata version of the data comes from the IETF:
IETF is responsible for internet standards, not for leap seconds. They
will take the leap seconds from IERS. I would assume that this
connection is well-established to rely on it. I was not so much
questioning upstream here, but I worry a bit about the Debian package
for tzdata: how sure can I be that the tzdata is actual (wrt upstream)?
Best regards
Ole
Reply to: