[Bug 2055718] Re: timezone changed unexpectedly from EST to America/Adak or America/Indiana/Indianapolis

[Benjamin Drung]

The debdiff for focal is similar to the debdiff for jammy. Only
debian/test_timezone_conversions needed some modification to work with
the older Python version.

** Patch added: "tzdata_2024a-0ubuntu0.20.04.1.debdiff"
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tzdata/+bug/2055718/+attachment/5761753/+files/tzdata_2024a-0ubuntu0.20.04.1.debdiff

** Description changed:

+ [ Impact ]
+ 
+ On every tzdata package upgrade the configured timezone might be updated
+ to an incorrect one.
+ 
+ I enhanced debian/test_timezone_conversions to detect those
+ inconsistencies and fixed everything that was found by this check. The
+ SRUs contain a backport of the script from noble.
+ 
+ [ Test Plan ]
+ 
+ debian/test_timezone_conversions is enhanced to check the timezone
+ conversions for consistency to prevent such kind of issues in the
+ future. debian/test_timezone_conversions is run during built and as
+ autopkgtest.
+ 
+ In addition, manual check can be done. The following test should stay at
+ `EST` (and not update to `America/Adak`):
+ 
+ ```
+ ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/EST /etc/localtime
+ dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata
+ ls -alh /etc/localtime
+ ```
+ 
+ `US/East-Indiana` should be updated to `America/Indiana/Indianapolis`
+ and not to `America/Adak`:
+ 
+ ```
+ ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/East-Indiana /etc/localtime
+ dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata
+ ```
+ 
+ `America/Louisville` should be updated to `America/Kentucky/Louisville`
+ and not to `America/Adak`:
+ 
+ ```
+ ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Louisville /etc/localtime
+ dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata
+ ```
+ 
+ [ Other Info ]
+ 
+ The autopkgtest for chrony is flaky on jammy and newer (see bug
+ #2002910).
+ 
+ [ Regression potential ]
+ 
+ The patch ziguard.awk-Move-link-to-link-feature-from-vanguard-to-
+ ma.patch moves the link to link feature from vanguard to main dataform
+ to produce correct symlinks. This results in symlinks that can point to
+ symlinks. The zic from glibc that we use can handle that, but there
+ might be other parsers that read /usr/share/zoneinfo/tzdata.zi directly
+ and could fail to handle symlinks to symlinks.
+ 
+ [ Original report ]
+ 
  A user reported this regression on
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tzdata/+bug/2052739:
  
  UPDATE: I don't think it's a regression anymore, see comment #5
  
  """
  Hello.
  After automatic upgrade of tzdata from 2023c-0ubuntu0.22.04.2 to 2024a-0ubuntu0.22.04
  the previously set EST time zone was automatically changed to "America/Adak" or "America/Indiana/Indianapolis" on all our servers (50+).
  Look like a bug in tzdata configure script.
  """

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2055718

Title:
  timezone changed unexpectedly from EST to America/Adak or
  America/Indiana/Indianapolis

Status in tzdata package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Committed
Status in tzdata source package in Focal:
  New
Status in tzdata source package in Jammy:
  New
Status in tzdata source package in Mantic:
  New

Bug description:
  [ Impact ]

  On every tzdata package upgrade the configured timezone might be
  updated to an incorrect one.

  I enhanced debian/test_timezone_conversions to detect those
  inconsistencies and fixed everything that was found by this check. The
  SRUs contain a backport of the script from noble.

  [ Test Plan ]

  debian/test_timezone_conversions is enhanced to check the timezone
  conversions for consistency to prevent such kind of issues in the
  future. debian/test_timezone_conversions is run during built and as
  autopkgtest.

  In addition, manual check can be done. The following test should stay
  at `EST` (and not update to `America/Adak`):

  ```
  ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/EST /etc/localtime
  dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata
  ls -alh /etc/localtime
  ```

  `US/East-Indiana` should be updated to `America/Indiana/Indianapolis`
  and not to `America/Adak`:

  ```
  ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/East-Indiana /etc/localtime
  dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata
  ```

  `America/Louisville` should be updated to
  `America/Kentucky/Louisville` and not to `America/Adak`:

  ```
  ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Louisville /etc/localtime
  dpkg-reconfigure --frontend noninteractive tzdata
  ```

  [ Other Info ]

  The autopkgtest for chrony is flaky on jammy and newer (see bug
  #2002910).

  [ Regression potential ]

  The patch ziguard.awk-Move-link-to-link-feature-from-vanguard-to-
  ma.patch moves the link to link feature from vanguard to main dataform
  to produce correct symlinks. This results in symlinks that can point
  to symlinks. The zic from glibc that we use can handle that, but there
  might be other parsers that read /usr/share/zoneinfo/tzdata.zi
  directly and could fail to handle symlinks to symlinks.

  [ Original report ]

  A user reported this regression on
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tzdata/+bug/2052739:

  UPDATE: I don't think it's a regression anymore, see comment #5

  """
  Hello.
  After automatic upgrade of tzdata from 2023c-0ubuntu0.22.04.2 to 2024a-0ubuntu0.22.04
  the previously set EST time zone was automatically changed to "America/Adak" or "America/Indiana/Indianapolis" on all our servers (50+).
  Look like a bug in tzdata configure script.
  """

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