Re: Redhat 7.3 time manipulation bug

lockhart@fourpalms.org

From: Thomas Lockhart <lockhart@fourpalms.org>
To: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>
Cc: Lamar Owen <lamar.owen@wgcr.org>, "Trond Eivind Glomsrød " <teg@redhat.com>, Manuel Sugawara <masm@fciencias.unam.mx>, PostgreSQL Hackers List <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2002-05-22T02:01:55Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
> > SuSE already does this.  I wonder how they've handled this issue with
> > 8.0?
> Their glibc doesn't have that problem.

My strong recollection is that a SuSE guy was the one applying the
change. So this is coming to those systems too. I may not remember that
correctly though...

> Personally, I think if you need time (zone) support before 1970, obtain
> one of the various operating systems that support it.  There's little
> value in hacking around it in PostgreSQL, since the rest of your system
> will be broken as well.

Yes, I'm afraid I agree. In practice, maybe most applications won't
notice. But after getting the Linux time zone databases set up to be
better than most (Solaris has the best I've found for fidelity to
pre-1970 year-to-year conventions) throwing that work away is just plain
silly. I consider this a major gaff on the part of the commercial Linux
houses to not see this coming and to contribute to a better solution.

                     - Thomas