Time Zone Database Release 2016b
Released
Downloads
| File | Description |
|---|---|
 tzdata2016b.tar.gz (298.3kb) |
Data Only Distribution |
| tzcode2016b.tar.gz (187.5kb) |
Code Only Distribution |
Release Notes
Compatibility note
Starting with release 2016b, some data entries cause zic implementations
derived from tz releases 2005j through 2015e to issue warnings like
"time zone abbreviation differs from POSIX standard (+03)".
These warnings should not otherwise affect zic's output and can safely be
ignored on today's platforms, as the warnings refer to a restriction in
POSIX.1-1988 that was removed in POSIX.1-2001. One way to suppress the
warnings is to upgrade to zic derived from tz releases 2015f and later.
Changes affecting future timestamps
New zones Europe/Astrakhan and Europe/Ulyanovsk for Astrakhan and
Ulyanovsk Oblasts, Russia, both of which will switch from +03 to +04 on
2016-03-27 at 02:00 local time. They need distinct zones since their
post-1970 histories disagree. New zone Asia/Barnaul for Altai Krai and
Altai Republic, Russia, which will switch from +06 to +07 on the same date
and local time. The Astrakhan change is already official; the others have
passed the first reading in the State Duma and are extremely likely.
Also, Asia/Sakhalin moves from +10 to +11 on 2016-03-27 at 02:00.
(Thanks to Alexander Krivenyshev for the heads-up, and to Matt Johnson
and Stepan Golosunov for followup.)
As a trial of a new system that needs less information to be made up,
the new zones use numeric time zone abbreviations like "+04"
instead of invented abbreviations like "ASTT".
Haiti will not observe DST in 2016. (Thanks to Jean Antoine via
Steffen Thorsen.)
Palestine's spring-forward transition on 2016-03-26 is at 01:00, not 00:00.
(Thanks to Hannah Kreitem.) Guess future transitions will be March's last
Saturday at 01:00, not March's last Friday at 24:00.
Changes affecting past timestamps
Europe/Chisinau observed DST during 1990, and switched from +04 to
+03 at 1990-05-06 02:00, instead of switching from +03 to +02.
(Thanks to Stepan Golosunov.)
1991 abbreviations in Europe/Samara should be SAMT/SAMST, not
KUYT/KUYST. (Thanks to Stepan Golosunov.)
Changes to code
tzselect's diagnostics and checking, and checktab.awk's checking,
have been improved. (Thanks to J William Piggott.)
tzcode now builds under MinGW. (Thanks to Ian Abbott and Esben Haabendal.)
tzselect now tests Julian-date TZ settings more accurately.
(Thanks to J William Piggott.)
Changes to commentary
Comments in zone tables have been improved. (Thanks to J William Piggott.)
tzselect again limits its menu comments so that menus fit on a
24×80 alphanumeric display.
A new web page tz-how-to.html. (Thanks to Bill Seymour.)
In the Theory file, the description of possible time zone abbreviations in
tzdata has been cleaned up, as the old description was unclear and
inconsistent. (Thanks to Alain Mouette for reporting the problem.)