Re: BUG #9374: some timzone abbver is missing from pg_timezone_abbrevs that are in pg_timezone_names

On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 6:57 PM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:

> mark(dot)a(dot)sloan(at)gmail(dot)com writes:
> > postgres=# SELECT * FROM pg_timezone_names where abbrev = 'WIB' ;
> > name | abbrev | utc_offset | is_dst
> > ----------------------+--------+------------+--------
> > posix/Asia/Pontianak | WIB | 07:00:00 | f
> > posix/Asia/Jakarta | WIB | 07:00:00 | f
> > Asia/Pontianak | WIB | 07:00:00 | f
> > Asia/Jakarta | WIB | 07:00:00 | f
> > (4 rows)
>
> > postgres=# SELECT * FROM pg_timezone_abbrevs where abbrev = 'WIB' ;
> > abbrev | utc_offset | is_dst
> > --------+------------+--------
> > (0 rows)
>
> This is not a bug. pg_timezone_abbrevs only lists abbreviations that are
> listed in the file selected by the timezone_abbreviations parameter.
> The default file doesn't contain WIB. You can if you like add it,
> or maybe better make up a custom abbreviations file tuned to your
> particular needs

While we haven't got a hard and fast policy about which timezone
> abbreviations to list in the default set, there are good reasons not to
> list uncommonly used ones: the more abbreviations are in the file, the
> greater chance of accepting typos as valid input. And we're definitely
> going to be cautious about including abbreviations that mean different
> things in different parts of the world, which is an issue for several of
> the "missing" ones you listed.
>
> regards, tom lane
>

Thank you for the clarification. I think it's going to better for the
groups I work with to just use the long name rather than the abbreviations.

-Mark