Re: BUG #5912: Etc/GMT time utc offset error - Mailing list pgsql-bugs

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: BUG #5912: Etc/GMT time utc offset error
Date
Msg-id 10585.1299173061@sss.pgh.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to BUG #5912: Etc/GMT time utc offset error  ("Ross Williams" <ross.williams@watchguard.com>)
List pgsql-bugs
"Ross Williams" <ross.williams@watchguard.com> writes:
> On the target OS the offsets are correct GMT+ gives a increased utc_offset.
> When I attempt to set via postgres, the timezone are flipped + for - and
> vice versa.

The problem is that there are conflicting standards for the sign of UTC
offsets.  The conventions Postgres has chosen are not 100% consistent,
but neither is the real world.  There's some discussion in this
section of the manual:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/static/datatype-datetime.html#DATATYPE-TIMEZONES

in particular this bit:

    Another issue to keep in mind is that in POSIX time zone names,
    positive offsets are used for locations west of
    Greenwich. Everywhere else, PostgreSQL follows the ISO-8601
    convention that positive timezone offsets are east of Greenwich.

            regards, tom lane

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