[pmmail-list] fetchtime ? - Probable explanation

[Ulrich Jakobus]

Hi,

I was also a couple of years ago frustated by the incorrect
treatment of TZ settings in Windows using PMMail, Infozip's
zip and unzip, and also RCS, the revision control system.
My experience in this regard:

 a) Setting TZ=CET-1CED-2,M3.5.0,M10.5.0 for Central Europe
      PMMail is correct
      RCS puts in correct timestamps
      zip/unzip have a 1 hour offset when DST becomes active
      (this is only relevant if one zips e.g. on Win32 and
      unzips on another system or in another timezone)

 b) Not setting TZ at all
      PMMail is correct
      zip/unzip are correct
      RCS is wrong (this can however be corrected by applying
      a patch to the source and setting RCSTZ=CET-1CED-2,M3.5.0,M10.5.0)

Therefore I am using b) and everything is correct. The mail below
also suggests to use option b), but claims that then the timestamps
in zip/unzip are wrong, which I cannot confirm. I am daily transfering
zip files across many Windows/UNIX systems in different timezones all
over the world, and since this is source code the timestamps are very
critical for the make process. Not setting TZ on Win32 and using zip 2.2
and unzip 5.41 (precompiled Win32 executables from e.g. 
ftp://ftp.icce.rug.nl/infozip/WIN32/) works for me.

Bye,

Ulrich


On Tue, 03 Apr 2001 12:16:26 +0200, Michael Gerdau wrote:

>Hi folks !
>
>All this fetchtime stuff is there in PMMail for quite a few years
>now. I have reported this at least three times (if not more often)
>without any (apparent) changes whatsoever.
>
>Meanwhile I have done some research as to the cause. FYC I'll insert
>my most recent bugreport.
>
>Maybe we could finally lobby the developers into fixing it.
>
>Here my recent bugreport:
>
>--- snip --- snip --- snip --- snip --- snip --- snip --- snip ---
>Dear PMMail support !
>
>Here is my yearly complaint about PMMail not correctly handling
>DaylightSavingTime !!!
>
>This error is there for a couple of years now and has been reported
>by me for quite a few times. I even had a discussion regarding this
>topic and correctly handling Timezones with Bob back when PMMail was
>OS/2 only.
>
>As it is we do have DST in germany (and most part of europe) since
>last weekend - we do switch on last weekend of March and back on
>last weekend of october for a couple of years now.
>
>I don't know how PMMail does decide on the correct time - it certainly
>does not use Windows (either 2000 or NT) time as that *is* correct while
>PMMail is 1 hour off.
>
>
>I have done some testing on this issue and here is what I found out:
>- PMMail does work correctly if and only if there is no setting provided
>  for TZ.
>- PMMail is 1 hour off when there is provided a TZ. I have further
>  investigated this and found the following:
>  - Cygnus tools and everything compiled with gcc does correctly
>    conform to POSIX w/r to handling TZ.
>  - IBM VAC does correctly handle it's own format. The first 3 fields
>    are the same as POSIX.
>  - Apparently MS VC++ does only know about the first 3 fields of a
>    POSIX conformant setting for TZ (i.e. normal name, offset, saving name)
>    and happily ignores anything behind it.
>
>
>While I understand blueprintsoftwareworks is in no position to fix the
>shortcomings of MS VC++ standard library, I nevertheless think the
>behaviour as it is now is less than satisfactory.
>
>What PMMail apparently does is using TZ when it is set. Due to
>shortcomings in MS VC++ standard library this implies that switching
>happens conforming to the method employed in the US (which seems to
>differ from most of europe).
>
>Simply removing TZ does solve the problem for PMMail. Unfortunately
>this is not an acceptable "solution" as this will cause other software
>- namely infozips ZIP - to not handle DST correctly.
>
>I therefor kindly ask you to fix this behaviour.
>
>Somewhat annoyed, best,
>Michael
>--- snip --- snip --- snip --- snip --- snip --- snip --- snip ---
>
>Best,
>Michael
>--
> Vote against SPAM - see http://www.politik-digital.de/spam/
> Michael Gerdau       email: mgd@technosis.de
> The Windows Energizer Bunny: It's STILL loading! And loading...
> PGP-keys available on request or at public keyserver
>
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