[Bug 2058249] Re: US symlinks missing in /usr/share/zoneinfo -> now in tzdata-legacy

[Benjamin Drung]

In Ubuntu 24.04 (noble) we have /usr/share/doc/tzdata/NEWS.Debian.gz:

tzdata (2023d-1) unstable; urgency=medium

    From 2023c-8 on the tzdata package ships only timezones that follow the
    current rules of geographical region (continent or ocean) and city name.
    All legacy timezone symlinks (old or merged timezones mentioned in the
    upstream backward file) were moved to tzdata-legacy. This includes the
    US/* timezones.

    Please install tzdata-legacy in case you need the legacy timezones or to
    restore the previous behavior. This might be needed in case the system
    provides timezone-aware data over the network (e. g. SQL databases).

 -- Benjamin Drung <bdrung at debian.org>  Tue, 02 Jan 2024 14:17:33 +0100

The debian changelog contains for 2023c-8:

  * Ship only timezones in tzdata that follow the current rules of geographical
    region (continent or ocean) and city name. Move all legacy timezone symlinks
    (that are upgraded during package update) to tzdata-legacy. This includes
    dropping the special handling for US/* timezones. (Closes: #1040997)

Improvements to the documentation are welcome.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2058249

Title:
  US symlinks missing in /usr/share/zoneinfo -> now in tzdata-legacy

Status in tzdata package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  On 22.04 Jammy with tzdata version 2024a-0ubuntu0.22.04 installed, we
  have `/usr/share/zoneinfo/US/*` symlinks. On 23.10 Mantic with tzdata
  version 2024a-0ubuntu0.23.10, we do not. Is this an intentional
  removal? I don't follow the IANA mailing lists, but I had
  thought/assumed that "Country/Region" symlinks were being maintained
  for backward compatibility.

  Many tools I use reference multiple timezones (regardless of the
  system TZ), so it is necessary to have them available. As a temporary
  workaround, we can make the symlinks manually.

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