Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Leah Neukirchen (leah@blahaj.social)'s status on Sunday, 07-Sep-2025 07:16:38 JST Leah Neukirchen

   in reply to

   • Tim Chase

   @gumnos "applications should not depend on random filespec values standing for UTC, as TZ formats may be extended in the future."

   • Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Tim Chase (gumnos@mastodon.bsd.cafe)'s status on Sunday, 07-Sep-2025 07:16:39 JST Tim Chase

     Today in POSIX fun courtesy of the remind(1) mailing-list (slightly modified for broader understandability):

     ⸻
     [There's] no way to know if you use a valid time zone name. That's because the POSIX API for setting a timezone is (I kid you not...):

     /* why use "UTC" when you can be in the Banana timezone*/
     const char* zone_name = "banana";
     setenv("TZ", zone_name, 1);
     tzset();

     and tzset() returns void...there's no possible error return from tzset()...not even errno. This is not one of POSIX's shining moments.
     ⸻

     🍌