Timezones -- what comes out does not go in?

"Julian Scarfe" <julian@avbrief.com> writes:

The timezone on our boxes is set to Etc/UCT (possibly a distro default).
(psql 8.1.4)

=> select to_char(current_timestamp, 'HH24:MI:SS TZ');
to_char
--------------
09:05:48 UCT
(1 row)

=> select '09:05:48 UCT'::time;
ERROR: invalid input syntax for type time: "09:05:48 UCT"

This works in CVS HEAD, thanks to some hard work by Joachim Wieland.

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2006-07/msg00077.php
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-committers/2006-07/msg00258.php

regards, tom lane

Julian Scarfe wrote:

The timezone on our boxes is set to Etc/UCT (possibly a distro default).

(psql 8.1.4)

=> select to_char(current_timestamp, 'HH24:MI:SS TZ');
to_char
--------------
09:05:48 UCT
(1 row)

=> select '09:05:48 UCT'::time;
ERROR: invalid input syntax for type time: "09:05:48 UCT"

Is this behaviour expected? Desirable?

It is expected, because back in 8.1 the timezones recognized came from a
hardcoded table. It's not desirable of course. But on the other hand,
it's fixed in the development code:

alvherre=# set timezone to 'Etc/UCT';
SET
alvherre=# select to_char(current_timestamp, 'HH24:MI:SS TZ');
to_char
--------------
14:19:05 UCT
(1 fila)

alvherre=# select '14:19:05 UCT'::time;
time
----------
14:19:05
(1 fila)

--
Alvaro Herrera http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support

From: "Tom Lane" <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

This works in CVS HEAD, thanks to some hard work by Joachim Wieland.

One of these days I'll find an issue *before* you folks have patched it. :-)

Thanks

Julian