tzdata version 2021b controversially merged a lot of time zones that have agreed since 1970. among other things, this caused comments in the database to become harder to understand.
as comparison, first, below are all the entries from the 2021a database (Debian Bullseye, before the change) that have both a comment and cover multiple countries (regions). entries numbered 1, 2, and 3 have comments that are marginally confusing, not obvious which part of the comment refers to which country.
Regions | Time Zone | Comment | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | AS:Samoa (American) UM:US minor outlying islands | Pacific/Pago_Pago | Samoa, Midway |
2 | US:United States UM:US minor outlying islands | Pacific/Honolulu | Hawaii |
NG:Nigeria AO:Angola BJ:Benin CD:Congo (Dem. Rep.) CF:Central African Rep. CG:Congo (Rep.) CM:Cameroon GA:Gabon GQ:Equatorial Guinea NE:Niger | Africa/Lagos | West Africa Time | |
CH:Switzerland DE:Germany LI:Liechtenstein | Europe/Zurich | Swiss time | |
MZ:Mozambique BI:Burundi BW:Botswana CD:Congo (Dem. Rep.) MW:Malawi RW:Rwanda ZM:Zambia ZW:Zimbabwe | Africa/Maputo | Central Africa Time | |
RU:Russia UA:Ukraine | Europe/Simferopol | Crimea | |
3 | RE:Réunion TF:French Southern & Antarctic Lands | Indian/Reunion | Réunion, Crozet, Scattered Islands |
TH:Thailand KH:Cambodia LA:Laos VN:Vietnam | Asia/Bangkok | Indochina (most areas) | |
NZ:New Zealand AQ:Antarctica | Pacific/Auckland | New Zealand time |
below are entries from the 2021e database filtered by the same criteria. there are many more confusing entries (numbered). for example, in #6, which country is "Syowa" part of? what if multiple countries have a location named Syowa?
Regions | Time Zone | Comment | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | AS:Samoa (American) UM:US minor outlying islands | Pacific/Pago_Pago | Samoa, Midway |
2 | US:United States UM:US minor outlying islands | Pacific/Honolulu | Hawaii |
3 | US:United States CA:Canada | America/Phoenix | MST - Arizona (except Navajo), Creston BC |
4 | PA:Panama CA:Canada KY:Cayman Islands | America/Panama | EST - Panama, Cayman, ON (Atikokan), NU (Coral H) |
5 | CA:Canada BS:Bahamas | America/Toronto | Eastern - ON, QC (most areas), Bahamas |
PR:Puerto Rico AG:Antigua & Barbuda CA:Canada AI:Anguilla AW:Aruba BL:St Barthelemy BQ:Caribbean NL CW:Curaçao DM:Dominica GD:Grenada GP:Guadeloupe KN:St Kitts & Nevis LC:St Lucia MF:St Martin (French) MS:Montserrat SX:St Maarten (Dutch) TT:Trinidad & Tobago VC:St Vincent VG:Virgin Islands (UK) VI:Virgin Islands (US) | America/Puerto_Rico | AST | |
NG:Nigeria AO:Angola BJ:Benin CD:Congo (Dem. Rep.) CF:Central African Rep. CG:Congo (Rep.) CM:Cameroon GA:Gabon GQ:Equatorial Guinea NE:Niger | Africa/Lagos | West Africa Time | |
CH:Switzerland DE:Germany LI:Liechtenstein | Europe/Zurich | Swiss time | |
MZ:Mozambique BI:Burundi BW:Botswana CD:Congo (Dem. Rep.) MW:Malawi RW:Rwanda ZM:Zambia ZW:Zimbabwe | Africa/Maputo | Central Africa Time | |
RU:Russia UA:Ukraine | Europe/Simferopol | Crimea | |
6 | SA:Saudi Arabia AQ:Antarctica KW:Kuwait YE:Yemen | Asia/Riyadh | Arabia, Syowa |
7 | RE:Réunion TF:French Southern & Antarctic Lands | Indian/Reunion | Réunion, Crozet, Scattered Islands |
TH:Thailand KH:Cambodia LA:Laos VN:Vietnam | Asia/Bangkok | Indochina (most areas) | |
SG:Singapore MY:Malaysia | Asia/Singapore | Singapore, peninsular Malaysia | |
8 | PG:Papua New Guinea AQ:Antarctica | Pacific/Port_Moresby | Papua New Guinea (most areas), Dumont d'Urville |
NZ:New Zealand AQ:Antarctica | Pacific/Auckland | New Zealand time |
a stopgap fix: comments in zone1970.tab should be applicable only to the first country (the country that the city is in), or to all countries listed for that time zone. for comments that apply only to some countries, move the comment to a Link time zone in zone.tab . but god help you if that comment requires an accented character, not supported by the older zone.tab . better, probably requiring software changes, is for zone1970.tab to also support Link time zones as entries with their own comments and coordinates.
incidentally, zone1970.tab says "Comments; present if and only if a country has multiple timezones", which is (arguably) violated by these merged entries. for example, Panama has only one time zone, so its entry should not have a comment, but it does (#4).
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