[Python-Dev] Stdlib and timezones, again

[Chris Angelico]

On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 8:17 AM, Matthias Klose <doko at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On 30.09.2012 20:18, Gregory P. Smith wrote:
>> priority:
>>   1) api call supplying tz data to the process.
>>   2) pytzdata module if it exists
>>   3) tz data from the underlying operating system
>>   4) error.
>
> I disagree on this order, at least for Linux systems. the tzdata database is
> well managed on major Linux distributions and should be used for this reason.

There's no guarantee that an individual sysadmin will have OS updates
up-to-date. If, on Linux, the pytzdata module is not installed unless
explicitly called for, that would define pytzdata as high specificity,
ergo it should override the lower specificity of the OS-provided data.

The normal case on Linux will happily use the well-managed and
frequently-updated tzdata.

ChrisA