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Debian 13, Postgres, and the US/* time zones

(rachelbythebay.com)
283 points move-on-by | 3 comments | 12 Sep 25 02:33 UTC | HN request time: 0.41s | source
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ggm ◴[12 Sep 25 02:48 UTC] No.45218201[source]▶
Is there a problem with ISO3166 denoted information in general or is there a specific US issue here? I would think ISO code denoted tzdata was a public good in some sense.
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masklinn ◴[12 Sep 25 06:27 UTC] No.45219199[source]▶
All the legacy time zones were moved out of the default zoneinfo install. It’s not a us-specific issue but the legacy US/ timezones remain in widespread use, and they stop working on Debian 13 ootb (possibly Ubuntu noble as well?).
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pixelesque ◴[12 Sep 25 07:23 UTC] No.45219568[source]▶
Does anyone know why they are still in widespread use?

Config defaults somewhere still using them? Man page examples? Tutorials using them? Or just force of habit?

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fredoralive ◴[12 Sep 25 09:16 UTC] No.45220261[source]▶
I suspect some of it will be because the legacy form is a bit more intuitive than the standard form. You don’t really use continents and cities as a reference to time zones normally, countries and local subdivisions makes more sense, but as other people note, it brings up POLITICS.
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1. MartijnBraam ◴[12 Sep 25 09:40 UTC] No.45220424[source]▶
You don't use them normally in the US, I've been referring to europe/amsterdam or europe/paris all my life in Linux installers and various equipment. I've never ever encountered netherlands/amsterdam or something like that.
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2. Symbiote ◴[12 Sep 25 12:45 UTC] No.45221521[source]▶
From the list of deprecated zones, we could have been using "GB", "Poland", "Portugal", "CET", but that's about it. "Netherlands" didn't exist.

Given the old names were deprecated in 1993, it's hardly surprising that I never before discovered "GB".

3. umanwizard ◴[12 Sep 25 15:15 UTC] No.45223029[source]▶
It’s the same in Europe as it is in the US. Normal people refer to Europe/Paris as CET, just like normal people refer to America/New_York as Eastern Time.