Hi folks,
I have been building and distributing tzdata with maximal backward compatibility
since adopting the package.
The maintainer and some distros are choosing to consolidate data and drop
historical details since 1970.
I question whether there are any Cygwin users who use and need the TAI-offset
including leap seconds zoneinfo/right subtree, and whether we also need to
include the zoneinfo/posix subtree, duplicating the data in the main zoneinfo tree?
There could be astrologers, genealogists, modern-history historians, and
developers of related software who use the complete historical details, and
astronomers, physicists, who use the TAI-offset including leap seconds
zoneinfo/right subtree.
I am unsure if anyone depends on the posix subtree duplicating the main tree.
I could split the current package into the main tree and the "posix" subtree
each 1.7MB, and the "right" subtree 2.3MB.
For tzdata-minimal, which could become the Base package, I could generate
another build with only zones consolidated with common history since 1970, but
that would require another build with different options to generate the data to
compile, so presumably another source package, unless there is a way to generate
say a minimal subtree with another cygmake with different MAKEOPTS, and have it
packaged the same as the main subtree, or could cygport go bananas?
Fedora was developing a tzdata-minimal package, which was only to include UTC
for containers, but it looks like UTC-only should work by not installing *ANY*
tzdata, so they shelved their efforts:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/tzdata-minimal
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?component=tzdata&product=Fedora
Do we think there could be a use case for a UTC-only (Base?) no tzdata package
e.g. CI, and the no data defaults will be handled adequately?
For RH see RHEL Timezone Data (tzdata) - Development Status Page:
https://access.redhat.com/articles/1187353
Suggestions for how best to proceed with these options, and to ask these
questions of users on the main list?
--
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
