GNU bug report logs - #79261
coreutils 9.7 "date -u" - timezone offset is in the wrong direction

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Message #42 received at 79261 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: James Feeney <james <at> nurealm.net>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 79261 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, bug-coreutils <bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org>,
 martin <at> kurahaupo.gen.nz
Subject: Re: bug#79261: coreutils 9.7 "date -u" - timezone offset is in the
 wrong direction
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2025 09:43:20 -0600

On Mon, 2025-08-25 at 15:20 -0700, Paul Eggert wrote:
> > 
> > Are you inclined to accept the time format of ISO 8601 for the display of UTC - or no?
> 
> We should not change the behavior of plain 'date -u' based on any 
> arguments presented so far in this thread. The current behavior is 
> longstanding, documented, required by POSIX, and plenty of people 
> undoubtedly depend on it.
> 

Your definition of "longstanding" seems a bit disingenuous, since this change, from the default POSIX `date -u` 24 hour format to the 12 hour format, was made in 2020, 5 years ago, while the GNU shellutils package was announced in 1991, 21 years prior to this change to the time format.  And then, to say "undoubtedly depend" is to presume a conclusion, with no evidence whatsoever.  As was reiterated by Martin, and admitted, UTC *itself* has nothing to do with time zones.

James

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