[Bug 2092236] Re: unknown time zone in $TZ quietly causes havoc

[Ian! D. Allen]

** Also affects: coreutils
   Importance: Undecided
       Status: New

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Title:
  unknown time zone in $TZ quietly causes havoc

Status in coreutils:
  New
Status in coreutils package in Ubuntu:
  New
Status in tzdata package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  See https://askubuntu.com/questions/1528949/time-setting-problems-
  with-ubuntu-24-04

  EDIT: All the problems below come from having set `TZ` to a non-
  existent (under Ubunto 24.04) time zone `Canada/Eastern` in my
  `.bashrc` and `.bash_profile`.  That old zone name was replaced by
  `America/Toronto` some time ago and the legacy `Canada/Eastern` zone
  name was deleted in Ubuntu 24.04.1.  Unfortunately, you don't get any
  error messages from programs when `TZ` has an invalid value in it such
  as `Canada/Eastern`.  The `date` command outputs UTC and just prints
  `Canada` as the time zone, and the GUI misbehaves badly as described
  below.  So let this be a bug report about how awful many programs are
  about coping with an invalid value in `TZ`, including the GUI.

  Report:

  I upgraded two laptops from 22.04 to 24.04.1 and both resulted in an
  inability to set the time zone correctly using the GUI settings.  The
  notification bar showed the time in UTC, not EST, at the top centre.

  My `/etc/timezone` contains `America/Toronto`, which should cause
  dates to display as EST (which they did before the upgrade to
  24.04.1).

  I would select and save `America/Toronto UTC-05:00` in the GUI and
  then the GUI would display `UTC (Toronto, Canada)`.  Toronto is EST,
  not UTC.

  The output of the `date` command was always in UTC, and the time zone
  was listed as the bogus `Canada` time zone instead of the correct EST:

      $ echo $TZ
      Canada/Eastern

      $ date
      Thu Dec 19 18:50:46 Canada 2024

  The output of `timedatectl` was correct, showing the correct EST time
  zone:

      $ timedatectl
                     Local time: Thu 2024-12-19 14:26:09 EST
                 Universal time: Thu 2024-12-19 19:26:09 UTC
                       RTC time: Thu 2024-12-19 19:26:09
                      Time zone: America/Toronto (EST, -0500)
      System clock synchronized: yes
                    NTP service: active
                RTC in local TZ: no

  Downgrading from 2024 to `tzdata_2022a-0ubuntu1_all.deb` fixed the
  problem on both machines; the time is correct and the `date` command
  shows the time zone is now EST:

      # date
      Thu Dec 19 19:37:35 Canada 2024

      # dpkg -i /tmp/tzdata_2022a-0ubuntu1_all.deb
      dpkg: warning: downgrading tzdata from 2024a-3ubuntu1.1 to 2022a-0ubuntu1
      (Reading database ... 217864 files and directories currently installed.)
      Preparing to unpack .../tzdata_2022a-0ubuntu1_all.deb ...
      Unpacking tzdata (2022a-0ubuntu1) over (2024a-3ubuntu1.1) ...
      Setting up tzdata (2022a-0ubuntu1) ...

      Current default time zone: 'America/Toronto'
      Local time is now:      Thu Dec 19 14:37:52 EST 2024.
      Universal Time is now:  Thu Dec 19 19:37:52 UTC 2024.
      Run 'dpkg-reconfigure tzdata' if you wish to change it.

      # date
      Thu Dec 19 14:37:53 EST 2024

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 24.04
  Package: tzdata 2022a-0ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 6.8.0-51.52-generic 6.8.12
  Uname: Linux 6.8.0-51-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.28.1-0ubuntu3.3
  Architecture: amd64
  CasperMD5CheckResult: unknown
  CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
  Date: Thu Dec 19 14:08:18 2024
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-09-08 (1563 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200731)
  PackageArchitecture: all
  SourcePackage: tzdata
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to noble on 2024-11-28 (22 days ago)

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