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0 pointsphaemon5y ago0 comments

No it isn't. If you tell your computer that the timezone your machine is set to is called "LOL", then of course that's what it should report. What else would it do?

It truncated the name because of the underscores, but you can do `TZ=somerandomthing date` to see it just reports what you say it is.

0 comments

treesprite825y ago

> If you tell your computer that the timezone your machine is set to is called "LOL", then of course that's what it should report. What else would it do?

If `TZ=EST date` adjusts the offset to EST, then a reasonable person would expect `TZ=EDT date` to either adjust the offset to EDT, or fail noisily if it's not aware of that offset code.

At a skim through the documentation I don't see anything warning about it's current behaviour.

phaemonOP5y ago

> or fail noisily if it's not aware of that offset code.

But it is aware of it! You just told it, using the TZ variable, what EDT is. It's a timezone called EDT, with no offset from UTC!

If you wanted an offset, you should have written `TZ=EDT+4 date`

treesprite825y ago

If I'm understanding the examples, it looks like (in general) commands such as `TZ=EST date` work as expected (i.e. you can set offset just using the offset code).

> But it is aware of it! You just told it

The user didn't intend to. Defining a new offset code should be explicit, not a silent fall-back when it's unable to find EDT.

1 more reply

steerablesafe5y ago

why doesn't this work the same way for 'EST' then? You don't specify offset so it should just display in UTC as well, right?

1 more reply

steerablesafe5y ago

Various behaviors when requesting time in a non-existent timezone:

sane: report an error in some hard to ignore form

less sane: ignore the provided timezone, display the time in UTC and properly mark it with "UTC"

insane: ignore the provided timezone, display the time in UTC, but then mark it with the prefix of the provided timezone anyway.

I don't care how well documented the insane behavior is, it's still insane.

phaemonOP5y ago

It didn't display the time in UTC, it displayed the time in timezone LOL. It happened to be the same as UTC because no offset was specified. It knew it was timezone LOL because that's what the TZ variable was set to.

If you set your machine to something weird, then expect the utility that reports on those settings to report the weird settings you set.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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treesprite825y ago

> If you tell your computer that the timezone your machine is set to is called "LOL", then of course that's what it should report. What else would it do?

If `TZ=EST date` adjusts the offset to EST, then a reasonable person would expect `TZ=EDT date` to either adjust the offset to EDT, or fail noisily if it's not aware of that offset code.

At a skim through the documentation I don't see anything warning about it's current behaviour.

phaemonOP5y ago

> or fail noisily if it's not aware of that offset code.

But it is aware of it! You just told it, using the TZ variable, what EDT is. It's a timezone called EDT, with no offset from UTC!

If you wanted an offset, you should have written `TZ=EDT+4 date`

treesprite825y ago

If I'm understanding the examples, it looks like (in general) commands such as `TZ=EST date` work as expected (i.e. you can set offset just using the offset code).

> But it is aware of it! You just told it

The user didn't intend to. Defining a new offset code should be explicit, not a silent fall-back when it's unable to find EDT.

1 more reply

steerablesafe5y ago

why doesn't this work the same way for 'EST' then? You don't specify offset so it should just display in UTC as well, right?

1 more reply

steerablesafe5y ago

Various behaviors when requesting time in a non-existent timezone:

sane: report an error in some hard to ignore form

less sane: ignore the provided timezone, display the time in UTC and properly mark it with "UTC"

insane: ignore the provided timezone, display the time in UTC, but then mark it with the prefix of the provided timezone anyway.

I don't care how well documented the insane behavior is, it's still insane.

phaemonOP5y ago

If you set your machine to something weird, then expect the utility that reports on those settings to report the weird settings you set.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse