set timestamp oddness

not sure what it's supposed to look like, but i'm reasonably
sure 'show time zone' shouldn't produce this--

	db=# set timezone = '-6';
	SET
	db=# show timezone;
	    TimeZone    
	----------------
	 -00:00:00.0216
	(1 row)

very odd, that! 

i'm using

	$ psql -V
	psql (PostgreSQL) 7.4.2
	contains support for command-line editing

on my debian/sarge (testing) system.



	db=# set timezone to '-5:00';
	ERROR:  unrecognized time zone name: "-5:00"

pooh. but this works, of course:

	hits=# set timezone = 'America/Chicago';
	SET
	hits=# show timezone;
	    TimeZone     
	-----------------
	 America/Chicago
	(1 row)

(or anything else under /usr/share/zoneinfo...)



also--

	db=# select now() at time zone 'America/Chicago';
	ERROR:  time zone "america/chicago" not recognized

doesn't that conflict with the "set" command above? is there a
good reason for the syntax of the timezone to be different here?

	db=# select now() at time zone '-5';
	ERROR:  time zone "-5" not recognized

also in conflict with what 'set time zone' accepts...

	db=# select now() at time zone 'GMT-5';
	ERROR:  time zone "gmt-5" not recognized


oh well, it was worth a shot.

but then:

	db=# select now() at time zone 'CDT';
	          timezone          
	----------------------------
	 2004-04-05 16:26:49.991342
	(1 row)

the one that "set time zone" does NOT accept, "at time zone" DOES.
hmm?

-- 
"Why did they hard code that value into the program?".
"My only guess would be to maximize suckage."
http://suso.suso.org/docs/apache_and_frontpage/htmldocs/part4-2.phtml