Re: [tz] Ubuntu drops old-style links - tzdata split test package

[Brian Inglis <Brian.Inglis@SystematicSW.ab.ca>]

On 2024-03-23 15:11, Corinna Vinschen via Cygwin-apps wrote:
> On Mar 23 10:38, Brian Inglis via Cygwin-apps wrote:
>> It looks to me that tzset.c prioritizes the Windows label over the country,
>> and it may be a better match prioritizing the country over the label, if the
>> country is not 001/"", nor ZZ, which are the generic entries.
> 
> The Windows timezone is the relevant setting in the first place becasue
> that's what indicvates the actual local time *as the user chose*.
> The territory should only be a secondary hint to choose the right
> POSIX entry.
> 
> For instance, I know people always using UTC, independently of their
> territory setting. If the territory rules, this user choice would be
> broken in Cygwin.
> 
>> It also is not clear what tzset should do when tzmap has a list of zones to
>> choose from, for example:
>>
>>    { L"Mountain Standard Time", L"CA", L"America/Edmonton
>> America/Cambridge_Bay America/Inuvik" },
>>    { L"Mountain Standard Time", L"US", L"America/Denver America/Boise" },
>>    { L"US Mountain Standard Time", L"CA", L"America/Creston
>> America/Dawson_Creek America/Fort_Nelson" },
>>
>> it currently just prints the first, but perhaps it should print all relevant
>> entries and the caller should handle the alternatives?
> 
> tzset is called from the shell default profile.  It has to use exactly
> one, valid entry, so time works as desired without forcing interactivity.
> 
> If the user doesn't like it, the user can always override tzset's choice
> in her own profile.

I have released and announced a test package of tzdata 2024a-2 split into three 
install packages: base tzdata, optional tzdata-right, and redundant 
tzdata-posix, each containing all the legacy zones so that tzset continues to 
work as before.

I could not reduce the base installed zones by many, because most were used by 
tzset, but I did drop a couple of large zone source files, produced by the 
build, that were previously included to allow users to see the source zones, 
rules, and links in effect, saving ~1MB, and dropping the overall default base 
installed file sizes by ~80% to ~20% of current, and download tar size by ~60% 
to ~40%; for all zones aggregate total installed file sizes are dropped by ~35% 
to ~65%, and download tar sizes by ~30% to ~70% of current:

install   tar   tzdata
  721KB  172KB   base
  984KB   78KB   right
  669KB   74KB   posix
1367KB  444KB   source
3667KB  452KB   current

Please check out the announcement, cygwin list echo, source and install package 
summary web pages, cygport changes, setup entries, scallywag builds, and let me 
know if there is anything you see that could benefit from improvement.

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis              Calgary, Alberta, Canada

La perfection est atteinte                   Perfection is achieved
non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter  not when there is no more to add
mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retirer     but when there is no more to cut
                                 -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry