[Bug 1714722] Re: Missing /etc/timezone (tzdata) triggers libdate-manip-perl bug

[Nick Morrott]

** Also affects: libdate-manip-perl (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

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Title:
  Missing /etc/timezone (tzdata) triggers libdate-manip-perl bug

Status in cloud-images:
  New
Status in libdate-manip-perl package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  Observation:

  Recently when build testing the xmltv source [1] with Travis CI
  against the ubuntu:zesty docker image, I have started to notice test
  failures caused by warnings/errors generated by libdate-manip-perl
  [2].

    [1] https://github.com/knowledgejunkie/XMLTV
    [2] https://travis-ci.org/knowledgejunkie/XMLTV/jobs/270641265

  These warnings are triggered by the Zesty version of libdate-manip-
  perl (6.57) coupled with the recent decision to drop the tzdata
  package from Ubuntu docker images and the resulting missing
  /etc/timezone file.

  In addition to the missing /etc/timezone file, I note that the
  /etc/localtime symlink points to a missing file that is provided by
  the tzdata package.

  The packaged version of libdate-manip-perl available on Zesty (6.57)
  includes a documented issue where the local timezone may not be
  detected correctly when the module is loaded. This issue is fixed in
  version 6.58 of libdate-manip-perl [3]

    [3] https://github.com/SBECK-github/Date-Manip/issues/8

  
  Build testing against 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS and 17.10 Artful is without issue, due to older/newer versions of the module.

  As a workaround I am using the following belt-and-braces approach in
  the relevant Dockerfile to install tzdata and configure local
  timezone:

  ---
  ENV TZ 'Europe/London'
  RUN echo $TZ > /etc/timezone && \
      apt-get -y install tzdata && \
      rm /etc/localtime && ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime && \
      dpkg-reconfigure -f noninteractive tzdata
  ---

  Just creating /etc/timezone seems to be enough to silence the
  warnings/errors from libdate-manip-perl.

  
  Implication:

  Applications running inside docker containers based on ubuntu:zesty
  that use libdate-manip-perl may be affected.


  Recommendation:

  I am not sure what the preferred strategy (if any) would be to address
  this issue for consumers of the ubuntu:zesty docker image and libdate-
  manip-perl, but possible solutions might include:

  i) provide a valid /etc/timezone file in the image when tzdata is not installed
  ii) add a Depends on tzdata for the libdate-manip-perl package in zesty
  iii) patch/upgrade the the libdate-manip-perl package in zesty to include the upstream fix

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